Higurashi no Naku Koro ni: Kamen Rider Aegis
by Francis456
Summary: Full Summery inside. Daisuke is a boy without memories who ends up in Hinamizawa. However, as he's taken in by the Gaming Club, he soon discovers that he has powers and pretty soon his past is rearing its ugly head as Daisuke and the Gaming Club are caught in the middle of a conspiracy for greater than anyone could have predicted.
1. In the Beginning

**Higurashi no Naku Koro ni: Kamen Rider Aegis**

**In the Beginning**

**Disclaimer** – I do not own anything from either Higurashi no Naku Koro ni or Kamen Rider. Higurashi is the property of Ryūkishi07 07th Expansion and Studio Deen and Kamen Rider is the property of Shōtaro Ishinomori, Tōru Hirayama and Mainichi Broadcasting Systems Inc. Also anything based off characters, enemies etc. from other works or any characters from other works, the things that they're based on and those characters are the property of their respective creators, companies etc. Also this fic was inspired by the fic, Kamen Rider Shōwa, which is the property of Kamen Rider Chrome and following a similar setting. It is not my intention to plagiarise from him and after discussing the idea with him, I have permission to do this fic.

* * *

**Summery** – Daisuke is a boy without memories. Somehow finding his way to Hinamizawa in the year, 1984, he's discovered by the Gaming Club and given a place to stay and quickly befriend him as he makes an effort to fit in and becomes incorporated into the village. However, all is not peaceful as during the Watanagashi Festival, the villagers are attacked by evil demonic creatures known as Shadirā and Daisuke discovers that he has the power to fight them, the powers of a Kamen Rider and so, Daisuke becomes the protector of Hinamizawa under the name, Kamen Rider Aegis. However, pretty soon, Daisuke's unknown past starts to rear its head and Daisuke finds himself wrestling with shocking revelations over things he's done in the past under the command of one, Kagemaru Bunshin Hakase (Doctor Bunshin Kagemaru) and not only that, but Daisuke also has to deal with clones of former comrades that he had been ordered to kill, who're determined to get their revenge for the originals and if things could not get any worse, the sinister organisation TŌKYŌ, which is known to the Gaming Club turn out to be Kagemaru's employers and Daisuke and his friends suddenly find themselves dealing with a rather huge conspiracy to rebuild Imperial Japan and have Japan established as the world's only superpower. Between dealing with the Shadirā and dealing with Kagemaru, can Daisuke and his friends bring an end to TŌKYŌ's ambitions once and for all or are they doomed to failure as TŌKYŌ makes plans to utilise kaizō ningen, kaijin and Hinamizawa Syndrome and plan to wipe Hinamizawa off the map in order to cover up the Syndrome's origins?

* * *

**Unknown location, Unknown Prefecture, Japan – Monday 21****st**** June 1982**

It was rather dark over the wasteland as dark clouds occupied the sky overhead. However, it was getting dark anyway and the clouds made it seem darker than it actually was. The clouds had been close to bursting point and were now in the process of depositing their contents that fell down to the ground as heavy torrential rain. The rain came down so quickly that the water droplets bounced off the ground as they made contact before dispersing. A flash of lightning appeared in the sky that briefly lit up the wasteland and revealed a lone figure standing in the centre of the wasteland with the bodies of four others surrounding him, all lying in pools of blood and each one wore a suit of armour with helmets that were styled after the heads of insects with antenna. Their armour was damaged in various places and some of their limbs were bent in awkward positions. However, as quickly as the flash came, it was gone, leaving the lone figure in darkness once again with only the sound of the raindrops beating off the ground and his own body as well as the loud boom of the thunder that accompanied the lightning flash assaulting his ears. He was dressed in the same type of armour as the four that lay dead round him and had the same type of helmet as the others as well.

He looked around, not really that bothered about the darkness, though another lightning flash briefly lit up the area once again. Darkness was nothing to him. The electronic equipment that was built into his helmet gave him perfect vision. He could see his surroundings as clear as day, though due to the redness of his helmet's "eyes", everything he saw were various shades of red. If one could see his face at the moment, the expression they would have described would be one of pure shock for he had been the one who had done this. He had been the one who had killed the four people surrounding him and to him, now that he had done the deed, he felt nothing other than guilt and disbelief that he had actually managed to carry it out.

"D-d-did I do this?" he whispered to himself as he continued to stare at the bodies surrounding him; saying each person's name as his eyes fell on them, "Yūsuke-san, Suyaka-chan, Chiharu-chan and Takeru-san."

However, the last one, Takeru, he almost resisted the urge to snort as he could honestly say that of the four people he had killed, he cared for Takeru the least. Truth was, neither he nor Takeru particularly liked one another all that much and he remembered when he had attacked his unsuspecting comrades, Takeru had been the most ecstatic and was actually quite thrilled that he had attacked them because as he put it, "I'd been looking for the perfect opportunity to kill you ever since I first laid my eyes on you". He honestly had no idea why Takeru had wanted him dead and neither did he care. He was dead now and could no longer bother him. However, aside from Takeru, the other three had been his closest friends for as long as he could remember. They had trained together, gone on missions together and had fun together and now they were dead; murdered by his hand.

"No… this can't… what have I done?" he said as he fell to his knees as tears started to well up in his eyes.

"Congratulations, Shishigō," a voice came, causing the armoured boy, now identified as Shishigō to turn and look behind him as a flash of lightning lit up the area and revealed a man standing behind him with a rather triumphant smirk on his face, "You've done well."

The man behind him had shoulder-length black hair that was tied into a small pony tail at the back and parted at the front exposing his forehead, which had a blood-red tattoo of the kanji symbol for the number, seven in the centre. He also had sharp and intelligent black eyes that seemed to ooze of sadistic glee as he witnessed the four dead bodies in front of him and wore black shoes, black trousers, a black waistcoat, a grey shirt and an orange tie and a white lab coat over his clothing that was open at the front.

Shishigō suddenly felt a wave of anger and fury flood through him as he shot the man a rather ferocious glare.

"You!" he spat with venom dripping from his voice, "You made me do this!"

That much was true, he could definitely say. He had only been following orders when he had murdered the others. This man, whom he knew as Kagemaru Bunshin had ordered him to kill the others, though he did not know why and despite his misgivings, he had followed through without question, but now that they were dead and the rush had worn off, he found himself wondering why.

"Why?" he demanded furiously, "Why did you make me kill them? They were my friends… well three of them were and I could honestly care less about Takeru-san, but the other three…"

"Oh come now," Kagemaru scoffed in a dismissive tone, "They've served their purpose and were of no further use to us. You on the other hand… congratulations, you've passed the test."

"Test… what are you saying, Hakase-san?" Shishigō said in shocked disbelief as he absorbed what Kagemaru had just told him.

"The experiment is over," Kagemaru went on, either having not heard or choosing to ignore Shishigō's question.

"Experiment…?" Shishigō said as his eyes widened from underneath his helmet before narrowing as they focussed on Kagemaru, burning with fury.

"Yes, this was all just an experiment, a test," Kagemaru explained in a gleefully triumphant tone as his expression gave out a rather triumphant… and somewhat mocking smile, "And you passed. You see, Shishigō, we've been trying to create the ultimate warrior for quite some time; someone capable of fighting quickly and efficiently and who can kill if the need arises and you have just proven yourself as the best candidate for the job."

"What?" Shishigō said in pure disbelief as a rather shocking realisation came over him, "You mean to tell me that I'm a living weapon?"

"Of course," Kagemaru conformed with a gleeful laugh, "You are the perfect soldier, capable of fighting and killing your enemies and as you've just proven, unhindered by petty attachments to others."

"They were my friends!" Shishigō protested as he stood up and glared at Kagemaru with murderous fury, "My only friends!"

"Yes, that was part of the experiment," Kagemaru boasted with a rather arrogant and somewhat taunting smirk; like he knew of Shishigō's mood and was daring him to lash out at him, "They were introduced to you and put through the same procedures you were put through in the hopes that you would all befriend and form bonds with one another. We set up the Shisenshi to encourage those bonds to grow and then eventually you would be ordered to dispose of your colleagues when those bonds reached a certain point, all for the purposes of creating a single super-soldier."

Shishigō felt his mind go numb as he heard this. At that point everything ceased to matter to him. From what he had been told, he had been chosen to become part of an elite fighting force charged with going on really extreme missions for Kagemaru's employers, though Shishigō did not know who they were. They were charged with dealing with their enemies and were promised a great life in return and for a while, it seemed as if they had kept their word, but if what Kagemaru had just told him was true, then it meant that it was all nothing more than a big lie. The Shisenshi or Death Warriors had all been a ruse; a trick intended to lull the others into a false sense of security while he had been ordered to eliminate them. Shishigō was not even his real name; it was merely just a codename meaning Death Number Four. Takeru had been Shisangō, Death Number Three; Suyaka had been Shinigō or Death Number Two; Yūsuke had been Shiichigō, Death Number One and Chiharu had been Shireigō, Death Number Zero.

"I know what you're thinking," Kagemaru went on, though in his frozen state, Shishigō was no longer listening, nor did he make any indication that he had even heard, "And yes, I will admit that it was all just a big lie. My employers only need one super-soldier. The Shisenshi were nothing more than a ruse designed to encourage your friendship with the others and then when their usefulness expired, we wanted to see if you were capable of suppressing your emotions in order to get the job done and it was successful. You've met all my expectations. To a soldier, emotions are a weakness; a weakness that needs to be eradicated."

For a few seconds, Shishigō just stood there motionless, as still as a statue, still making no indication that he had heard Kagemaru, but then before Kagemaru could blink, Shishigō's arm rose up and shot out as Shishigō grabbed Kagemaru by the neck and hoisted him up into the air.

"You lied to me!" Shishigō growled dangerously in a low and feral voice, "You lied to me! You lied to me!"

He then applied more pressure to Kagemaru's neck, making it impossible for him to utter a reply, though if Shishigō had not been consumed in his anger, he would have noticed a spark in Kagemaru's eyes. Kagemaru, for his part had been taken completely by surprise at his creation's actions, but once getting over the initial surprise, he felt rather intrigued by Shishigō and wondered just exactly what he was going to do. Of course, he was not stupid. He knew that he was not going to come out of this alive and yet, he was not in the least bit bothered by that.

"You lied to me!" Shishigō went on repeating as he applied yet even more pressure to Kagemaru's neck.

In truth, Shishigō could not really remember how he came to be in Kagemaru's care. That part of his life was lost to him. All he could remember was being in Kagemaru's care and how he had been made into a cyborg or a kaizō ningen as Kagemaru liked to call him. He also remembered on being trained in the art of combat and weapons use as well as everything there was to learn on being a soldier. He also learned the importance of following orders and had been conditioned to obey orders without question, which was why he had killed his friends despite his misgivings. It was clear what Kagemaru wanted to know. He had been interested in whether or not his conditioning was capable of winning out over the bonds of friendship that he had formed with the others… well, everyone aside from Takeru, but even then, Shishigō had not wanted to kill him despite his infuriating attitude. Anyway, in the end, Kagemaru's hypothesis had proved to be correct. He had been rather torn over his loyalty to his friends and loyalty to Kagemaru and in the end, his loyalty to Kagemaru had won out in the end.

However, now that he knew that everything he thought he knew was a lie and that Kagemaru had only been using him for his own twisted ends, he felt nothing but raw passionate fury flow through him as a fire raged within his soul as it called out for absolute vengeance. He then released Kagemaru while still hoisted in the air, causing him to fall to the ground.

"RIDER UPPERCUT PUNCH!" Shishigō yelled as he clenched his right fist and delivered a rather vicious uppercut to Kagemaru before he landed on the ground, sending him flying high into the air.

"RIDER JUMP!" he then yelled as he brought his feet together and appeared to lift up onto his tiptoes, only to be propelled high into the air as if he had jumped on a springboard.

He went up till he was level with Kagemaru, who was now in the process of falling back down to Earth.

"RIDER ROUNDHOUSE KICK!" Shishigō yelled as he delivered a ferocious roundhouse kick that hit Kagemaru right in the stomach and sent him flying horizontally into the darkness.

Once he landed back down on his feet, he looked around the area once again, studying the dead bodies of his fallen comrades. Unsure of what he was going to do next, he fell to his knees and let out a rather loud cry of frustration and anguish and balled up his fists before slamming them into the ground.

"Damn it!" he cursed to himself, "Damn it all to Hell!"

However, unbeknownst to Shishigō, one of the bodies behind him twitched slightly, indicating that its owner was not quite dead.

"Dai-kun…" a rather weak female voice crocked, though the volume was so low that, added with the thunder that accompanied the lightning flashes that Shishigō didn't hear her.

However, she had been conscious when Kagemaru had appeared and congratulated Shishigō or Dai-kun as she knew him as.

"Kagemaru Hakase, anata kusatta yarō!" she cursed in her thoughts, being too weak to speak aloud as she felt herself slipping into unconsciousness as her eyes started to close under the weight of her eyelids, "We trusted you…"

However, before she could continue with her thoughts, she lost consciousness as Shishigō stood up and took one last look around.

"Gomenasai, mina," he said with a sigh, "If only I had known the truth, I…"

He then trailed off, unable to finish his sentence as tears started to flow down his cheeks as the dam that had been holding them back finally burst and he allowed himself to become overwhelmed by his grief, anguish and guilt.

However, the sound of a footstep on the ground, suddenly caught his attention and immediately, he was on the alert as he turned round and another flash of lightning lit up the sky and highlighted a silhouette standing atop a nearby hill.

* * *

Meanwhile, not all that far away from where Shishigō was, inside a top secret facility that had been built inside a mountain, there was a bustle of activity. The facility itself was rather impressive and if one were to venture inside, they would have been forgiven for coming to the conclusion that they had stepped into the future. On the outside though, there was nothing to suggest the presence of the facility and looked just like any other ordinary mountain range. Even if anyone were to venture up close, they could spend years there and not come anywhere close to discovering any of the facility's secret entrances. However on the inside was a vast array of corridors and various rooms that had designated functions and there were even floors that ran underground as well as underground evacuation passages and supply routes so that no one could discover the facility's existence. However, if anyone had ventured into the facility then they would have been shocked to discover that all members of staff all appeared to be the same man and each member of staff also had a blood-red tattoo stamped in the centre of their foreheads and each tattoo was a kanji symbol or a set of kanji symbols depicting a number. They were all identical in appearance and even wore the same clothes aside from the different colours of each individual's tie and they all looked identical to Kagemaru Bunshin, the man that Shishigō had supposedly killed. In essence, they were all Kagemaru.

"Nanagō has been killed," one of the Kagemaru clones stated simply as the rest all nodded, knowing that their colleague had been referring to the Kagemaru that Shishigō had dealt with.

"So who gets to be the one who'll inform Reigō-sama about this?" another asked curiously.

"That's really pointless," a third clone spoke up, "We practically all have the same mind, so whatever we know, Reigō-sama is also sure to know."

"True, but it would just seems normal just to inform him of Nanagō's demise anyway," the second clone replied.

"There's no need to inform Reigō-sama," a fourth clone spoke up, "Ichigō-san already has it covered, though since we're all of the same mind, we all already know that in which case, it's pointless for me to tell you, isn't it?"

"Quite true, Sanjūgō-san," the first clone said with a nod of acknowledgment, "But informing one another on things we all already know makes for good conversation, plus it gives this place a sense of normality."

"How right you are, Jūkyūgō-san," the clone identified as Sanjūgō complimented as he brought his hands together with a happy expression on his face as if he were an excited toddler, "Lack of conversation and silence makes for a boring work environment."

* * *

Meanwhile, in the lowest basement level underground, the Kagemaru clone that the others had identified as Ichigō stepped out of the elevator before the doors closed behind him and he walked down the corridor towards a pair of big grey doors with the kanji symbol for Zero in black painted over the entire length of the doors. Each door had half the symbol painted on it with both halves meeting in the centre where the doors opened and came apart. Like all the other clones, Ichigō was dressed in the same clothing, only he had a black tie as opposed to Nanagō's orange tie.

Anyway, the corridor he was walking down had a grey metal floor, grey metal walls on either side and a grey metal ceiling with circular lights lighting the way. At both the bottom and the top, the walls bridged outwards at diagonal forty-five-degree angles with additional albeit smaller circular lights halfway between the floor/ceiling and where the walls started to go straight and the floor was also made up of segmented rectangles.

As Ichigō reached the end of the corridor, the two doors slid apart and he then proceeded to walk inside to a huge darkened room with rather dim lighting that was just bright enough for Ichigō to make out a silhouette in the centre of the room sitting on a rather uncomfortable looking chair and if that was not enough, the silhouette also had a metal ring with a variety of multi-coloured lights flashing round his head and the ring also had a variety of wires attached to it that went high up towards the blackness where the ceiling was.

This was Kagemaru Bunshin, the original Kagemaru Bunshin and as such, since he was not a clone, he was given the title, Reigō, Number Zero and led his army of clones from the confines of his room and like his clones, he was also part of their hive mind and therefore knew everything his clones did and since his clones had been programmed to worship and revere him, they all took to calling him, Reigō-sama since it gave him a feeling of importance.

In any case, Ichigō dropped to one knee and bowed respectively.

"Reigō-sama, I bring you news of great importance," he said in a very polite and respectable tone, "Unfortunately, Bunshin Nanagō has been killed and Shishigō has… shall we say…"

"Gone rogue," Reigō spoke up, interrupting his clone before he could finish, "Yes, I am aware of that. Don't forget, I share the same experiences you all do in case you've forgotten."

"Gomenasai, Reigō-sama," Ichigō said, still maintaining his respectable tone, "I just thought that you ought to be informed anyway, since it would seem normal."

"Uh huh," Reigō said dismissively with a wave of his hand, "Yes, I'm aware. In any case, I feel the need that I should inform you that despite Shishigō's orders to terminate his colleagues, it seems that Shireigō is still alive."

"Yes," Ichigō nodded as he already knew this, "Shall we send someone to terminate her?"

"No," Reigō said as he shook his head, "We will not terminate her. Despite Shishigō's failure to eliminate her, I find her survival rather interesting, don't you agree?"

"Oh yes," Ichigō said with a nod, "So we'll be retrieving her, I take it."

"You already know the answer, so why are you asking?" Reigō asked as a hint of slight annoyance in his tone, "Even if she did overhear Nanagō and Shishigō, it would be foolish of her to turn against us. No doubt she'll probably play along with us, waiting for us to drop our guard before she strikes. Well, we'll let her believe that and should she betray us, she'll be in for a rather nasty surprise. As for Shishigō, we'll leave him be for now. I don't know how, but according to our scanners, he's disappeared. No use wasting precious time and resources on trying to find him. We'll simply wait till he rears his head again before we deal with him."

"Understood, Reigō-sama," Ichigō said without protest as he bowed even lower before getting up and turned to walk out the door.

* * *

**Between Hinamizawa and Okinomiya, XX Prefecture, Japan – Saturday 19****th**** May 1984 (Roughly one year and eleven months later)**

It was a sunny day in the area of Shishibone City. There was hardly a cloud in the sky and the sun shone down, bathing the mountains in its glorious splendour. There was also a cool breeze in the air that caused the leaves on the trees as well as the grass to gently sway to and fro harmlessly from side to side. As usual round about this time of year, birds were chirping as they went about their normal business and the sound of cicadas filled the air in a rather almost deafening crescendo. However, whereas newcomers would most definitely find the cicadas rather annoying and off-putting, the locals were not in the least bit put off by the noise since growing up in the area, they had long since gotten used to the loudness of the cicadas and even managed to drown it out at night before going to sleep.

Anyway, the Hinamizawa Gaming Club, a group that consisted of Sonozaki Mion, Ryūgū Rena, Maebara Keiichi, Hōjō Satoko, Furude Rika and most recently, both Rika's distant relative, Furude Hanyū and Mion's identical twin sister, Sonozaki Shion were currently cycling their way back home to Hinamizawa from Okinomiya after a day of fun and games or club activities as Mion liked to call them. However, unfortunately for Mion, she was not in a good mood due to the fact that she had ended up losing and ended up in last place, which meant she had to partake in a Punishment Game and Keiichi was feeling rather pleased with himself and wore a triumphant smirk as it was clear that he had been the overall winner, which for him was pretty rare. Usually he was the one who lost the most and Mion was the one who won most of the time; mainly due to cheating, but one of the club's rules were that club members had to do whatever it took to win, which meant that cheating was not only allowed, but also encouraged.

"Damn it," Mion huffed aloud, still fuming over the fact that she had lost. "I can't believe that I lost… and to Kei-chan of all people."

"Well, there's a first time for everything," Keiichi said in a rather boastful tone, "Maybe Lady Luck's finally decided to shine down on me."

"Or maybe Mī-chan's just having an off-day," Rena put in as she was curious as to what Punishment Game Mion was going to be put through, "I wonder what you're planning on having her do, Keiichi-kun. Will you have her dress up in something really cute, haū~, Mī-chan, kawaī, omochikaerī~."

"Shut up!" Mion snapped, shaking her head as she glared at her friend, though she did have to admit that she found Rena's explanation for her string of bad luck more believable than Keiichi's.

However, Rena just chose to ignore her as she fantasised over Mion being in a variety of embarrassing outfits that made her look cute and each fantasy always ended with Rena running towards Mion before picking her up and then taking her home with her and keeping her in an imaginary dungeon for the rest of her life. Before Keiichi arrived in Hinamizawa and joined the Gaming Club Rena had been the one who had lost the most and she remembered that each time she lost, Mion, who mostly always won even back then would have her dress up in rather cute and embarrassing clothing and since then, she had always dreamed of someday beating Mion and exacting some revenge. Even after Keiichi came and took her place as the "biggest loser", she still hoped that one day; she would defeat Mion and have her dress up in the same clothes that she had forced her to wear. However, despite not having won herself, she was happy to know that Keiichi had won instead of Mion and just seeing Mion in a humiliating outfit, even if it was at the behest of someone else was good enough for her.

"Or perhaps the world is just working in reverse today," Shion spoke up in response to the first part of Rena's last statement in a rather cheerful tone.

"Don't you start!" Mion growled as she glared at her sister, though she also found her explanation believable.

"You know that I have a point, onē," Shion spoke up as she decided to tease her sister, "Usually you're the biggest winner and Kei-chan's the biggest loser."

"Yeah, a change would be nice," Satoko spoke up, putting in her two cents.

"Not you to, Satoko," Mion groaned as she resisted the urge to bang her head against the handlebars of her bike.

"See, even Satoko's on my side," Keiichi taunted with a laugh.

"Though, I would have preferred it if you'd lost to someone who isn't Keiichi-san," Satoko finished, causing Keiichi to almost fall off his bike as he instinctively tried to face vault, but thankfully he managed to catch himself and regain control of his bike.

"Hey," he protested, glaring at the blonde-haired pre-teen.

Rika and Hanyū both chuckled as they both watched the other members of the Gaming Club while they brought up the rear. Both of them remembered what had transpired the previous year in which Takano Miyo had conspired to kill Rika and then destroy the entire village in the hopes of proving that her adoptive grandfather, Takano Hifumi's research on the local disease, Hinamizawa Syndrome was correct. Takano had been thwarted, though Rika remembered how in the beginning she had been killed and Takano had won. However, thanks to Hanyū, her soul was able to jump to another dimension in which she would live out events again and try to prevent her own death, but unfortunately each time she tried, she was always met with disaster and disappointment, causing Hanyū to ship her to yet another dimension to try again.

Rika had no idea how long she had been hoping dimensions, though Hanyū estimated that it was probably about a century, but neither she nor Rika could really say for certain. However, Rika did remember about a month later after she had finally "defeated fate", as she called it, while on the way back to Hinamizawa from Okinomiya that she decided to have a race and bumped Satoko to provoke her. Despite Hanyū's warning that she had been going too fast, she ignored her and ended up getting hit by a truck. Since she had managed to live past the June of 1983, she had believed she was safe and felt that she was pretty much invincible. However, unlike Takano and the Yamainu, the truck driver had not been intending to kill her and that it had just been an accident brought on by her own stupidity. In any case, she found herself in yet another world, but unlike the other worlds, this world had none of the tragedies that had occurred in all the others. Keiichi was not present and neither was Shion, Satoshi had not disappeared, Rena still kept her original name, Reina and she and Satoko were not best friends and in fact, Satoko had taken great pleasure in bullying her, which caused Rika to eventually take a page out of Shion's book and hit her with a chair when her bullying became too much to bare. Anyway, aside from that, Takano was nowhere to be found and neither was Irie Kyōsuke, the local doctor and the dam project that had caused such an uproar in all the other worlds was going to go ahead and the dispute had been resolved peacefully. Also, the Irie Clinic had been called the Takano Clinic, which had caused her to panic at first, but she relaxed when she learned that despite the name, there was no connection to Takano Miyo and that the Takano in the name was in fact, Takano Hifumi, a man that Rika knew had been Takano's adoptive grandfather.

Nonetheless, despite the happy atmosphere, Rika could honestly say that it sickened her and she felt as if everything had become stagnant and empty. She honestly could not stand the happy attitude and felt as if she had entered a world that did not know the meaning of the word, tragedy and she remembered that it had scared her. Everyone was just so happy and Rika had felt like screaming. However, she eventually grew to accept it and learned that her counterpart had been a particularly manipulative and cruel girl that had taken advantage of boys' crushes on her and got them to do things for her, which had led to her becoming rather isolated and two of her schoolmates, Tomita Daiki and Okamura Suguru moving out of the village. Also, she managed to forge a bond with her mother, who was still alive.

Her relationship with her own mother had been rather strained before Takano had killed her. Thanks to Hanyū teaching her everything she needed to know combined with the repeated worlds, Rika had grown rather distant from her parents. Between the years of 1980 and 1981, Satoko had come down with Hinamizawa Syndrome, which had caused her to kill her mother and stepfather during the 1980 Watanagashi Festival since she believed that they were trying to kill her and Rika had volunteered to be a test subject since she was the "Queen Carrier", whose job it was to keep the syndrome in check. Her father had agreed to it, but her mother had misgivings and despite their strained relationship, Furude Hikari did indeed care for her daughter and reluctantly agreed. However, Rika remembered not long afterwards, she had come down with a fever and her mother used that as an excuse to pull her out of the research program, but Takano retaliated by poisoning her father and kidnapping Hikari during the 1981 Watanagashi Festival, taking advantage of the local folklore surrounding the local Shrine God, Oyashiro-sama and despite that, Rika found herself being rather cold and indifferent to her parents' fate, believing that they had brought it on themselves. However, while in the new world, she had reconnected with her mother and had come to realise that she really did care for her mother and that her indifference and cold attitude towards the deaths of her parents had in fact been a coping mechanism since she had seen it happen many times before and had been powerless to stop it. Things did get complicated when she learned that in order to get back to her own world, she had to kill her mother, which had torn her up inside, but she managed to do it and in the end had learned that it had all been a dream that Hanyū created to teach her a lesson on how one had to work past their tragedies to make life worth living.

"Hey, Rika, what's wrong, you're awfully quiet," Hanyū said, giving her friend a look of concern.

"Huh?" Rika said, being brought out of her thoughts, "What, no, I'm perfectly fine."

However, despite Hanyū's claims that it had been a dream, it had done nothing to alleviate the sense of guilt she felt after she had killed her mother. She felt like a murderer and remembered on how waking up, she had almost cried. She had spent her whole life or a fairly good portion of her life convinced that her parents had meant nothing to her and after seeing them both alive, she had suddenly come to realise that she had been deceiving herself and had started to bond with her mother, but then she learned that she had to kill her otherwise she would have been stuck in that world forever. She just could not help but wonder what would have happened if she had chosen to stay in that world. Would she have just died or remain comatose for the rest of her life? Those thoughts passed through her mind and she could not help but wonder.

"Anyway," Keiichi's voice came, bringing her out of her thoughts, "Once we get back, Mion, you're mine."

Mion just groaned in disapproval.

"Punishment Games are fun, aren't they, onē," Shion laughed teasingly, "Unless of course you happen to find yourself on the receiving end, that is."

"Shut up!" Mion growled.

She supposed that she should feel glad that she could not be forced to go through with her Punishment Game back in Okinomiya. However, the reason behind that really infuriated her. Before, Punishment Games were given out on the spot regardless of location. Unfortunately, with Ōishi Kuraudo's retirement from the local police force, that had become an impossibility. Ōishi's replacement, Yūkimoto Ginjurō unfortunately was not a nice character to say the least and suffice to say, he had a problem with the Sonozaki Family due to their connections with the Yakuza and he always seemed to go out of his way to make Mion and Shion's lives miserable whenever he saw them and if that was not enough, despite the truth of the Watanagashi Murders and Disappearances being made public, he was still convinced that the Sonozaki Family had a hand in it somehow. Despite the truth, he was convinced that the Sonozakis had managed to cover their tracks well and managed to destroy the evidence that linked them to Takano and no matter what, he just refused to listen to or even acknowledge evidence to the contrary. In his mind, the Sonozakis were guilty because he said so; that's what his attitude amounted to.

Mion had put Keiichi through a Punishment Game while in Okinomiya when Yūkimoto first started and he almost arrested her, but Keiichi refused to press charges, much to his disgust and so, he had been forced to release her, though he did warn her that if he caught her or any of her friends doing something similar in future, then he would arrest the whole lot of them and he even had the audacity to call Rika a "freak of nature". However, Mion was thankful that Yūkimoto was not that well-liked by the majority of people living in Okinomiya either, including his own colleagues. In fact Ōishi's former partner, Kumagai Katsuya was the most vocal in expressing his dislike for Yūkimoto and as for Yūkimoto himself, it seemed that as far as he was concerned, the feeling was mutual. He did not look like he liked anyone in Okinomiya either.

Like Yūkimoto, Ōishi had first been convinced of the Sonozaki Family's guilt, but unlike Yūkimoto, he did not make such a big deal out of it and did not go out of his way to make her and her sister's lives a misery and when it came to Punishment Games, Ōishi had been quite tolerant despite his hatred of the Sonozaki Family back then. He never bothered her if he did not have to whereas Yūkimoto seemed determined to provoke her into retaliating just so he could have a valid excuse to arrest her and all just because she was a Sonozaki.

"You're just mad because you're on the receiving end this time," Keiichi boasted with a playful taunt.

"It's not the first time I've lost, you know," Mion pointed out as she had to admit that there were times in the past in which she had lost before.

"And it's not the first time I've won either," Keiichi shot back with a triumphantly boastful smirk.

That much was true. Despite being the biggest loser in the club, there were the odd occasions in which he had come out on top and Mion lost, but those instances had been few and far between and so with each time he did win, he made the most of it and milked his victories for all they were worth. After all, he did not know when he would be able to pull off a win again and took immense pride in the games that he did win. As for Punishment Games, he normally would have the girls wear the outfits he had been forced to wear. After all, it was proportionate. A club rule was that the winners could do anything they wished with the losers, but with no limits in place on what the winners can and can't do, Keiichi feared that eventually he or one of the girls would be made to suffer a Punishment Game that would go too far and cause great damage, whether physical or psychological and what he feared the most was that he would be the one who would cross the line. He did have a lot of ideas on what to do with Mion, but he decided to go with ones that were proportionate to the Punishment Games he was put through. Many of his ideas, he would admit clearly bordered on if not went straight into the territory of disproportionate retribution and despite being a downright pervert at times, he did care for the girls as people and as such, treated them well whenever he put them through a Punishment Game.

"Well, onē, look on the bright side, at least you didn't lose to me," Shion said boastfully.

"Oh, and what, pray tell, would you do to me if you have won?" Mion said in a tone that made it clear that she felt insulted.

"You'd love to know that, wouldn't you?" Shion replied with a sinister looking grin and then winked at her sister, causing Mion to blush before her anger returned.

"Hah, like you could ever beat me, Shion, that's a laugh?" Mion said boastfully as she puffed out her chest as if trying to present herself as someone important.

"Oh really?" Shion challenged with a grin, "Wanna wager on it?"

"Huh?" Mion said looking confused for a moment, but then shook her head and glared at her sister, "Okay, you're on!"

"Just how confident are you that you'll win?" Shion asked as she could not stop herself trembling with excitement.

"Oh, so it's like that, is it?" Mion said with a smirk of her own, "Very well, I'm so confident that I can defeat you that should you prove me wrong, then once Kei-chan's Punishment Game is over, starting Monday, I'll be at your beck and call for the week."

Shion's face transformed into a rather sinister looking grin and Mion's eyes widened upon realising that that she had walked right into Shion's trap.

"Okay then and just so you know, onē, I have plenty of chores for you to do when we get home," Shion went on as the excitement in her voice became apparent, "First one back to the village wins."

No sooner had she said that she turned her head and pedalled off rather quickly before Mion or any of the others could even react.

"Hey, no fair, you got a head start!" Mion called out to her sister as she sped after her.

"Do whatever it takes to win, that's one of the club's rules!" Shion called back, reminding her sister of the rules she had established.

"Hey, you're not leaving me out of this!" Keiichi called out in protest, "I'm in to."

"Hey, wait up, Keiichi-kun!" Rena called out as she pedalled after him, "Rena wants in to!"

"Might as well join in," Rika said as she sped off, leaving Satoko and Hanyū confused.

"Hey, Rika, remember what happened the last time!" Hanyū called out as she followed her.

"Last time?" Satoko said in confusion before realisation washed over her, "Oh, the truck, of course, Rika did get run over by that truck."

However, as she came to this realisation, another realisation hit her.

"But, hold on, Hanyū-san wasn't even there," she said in confusion as she remembered that incident quite clearly and she did not remember seeing Hanyū there at all, "That's strange."

However, she dismissed it and came to the conclusion that Rika must have told her what happened. She remembered last year that not long before Takano had been exposed and defeated, Hanyū had come and joined their club and for a while afterwards, Hanyū had to leave for some reason and the incident with the truck happened after she had left. However, a while later, Hanyū returned and Satoko did not recall ever telling her about the incident with the truck and so, she decided that one of the others must have told her about it. She then started to increase the rate of her pedalling and sped off after the others.

"Ha, ha, ha, eat my dust, Mion-bāchan!" Shion called out in mocking laughter.

"That's Mion-ojisan to you and there's no way I'm letting you beat me!" Mion shouted back as she started to gain some of the distance between her and her sister.

"Gee, Mion, sometimes I wonder if you like to fantasise that you're a guy," Shion taunted in response to Mion's statement.

"I'll get you for that!" Mion shouted in frustration.

"But Kei-chan's also a guy, isn't he?" Shion went on in mock realisation, unaware that Keiichi and the others had decided to join in and were gaining on them, "And you like Kei-chan, don't you?"

"Shion, don't you dare!" Mion warned, fearful for what her sister was going to say.

"Well if you were a guy and you liked Kei-chan, that would mean that you'd be gay," Shion finished with a laugh, causing her sister's face to light up red in anger and frustration.

"SHION, I'M GONNA KILL YOU!" Mion shouted as she sped after her sister, who continued to laugh boastfully.

"What's wrong, you know it's true," Shion went on as she turned her head, taking her eyes off the road to look at her sister, "Or if you were a guy and not my sibling, would I end up being the target of your affection?"

Mion opened her mouth to reply, but suddenly her eyes widened upon noticing the road in front of her.

"For god's sake, Shion, keep your eyes on the road!" she shouted in a serious no-nonsense tone.

"Ha, like I'm gonna believe that," Shion scoffed, not realising the seriousness in her sister's voice.

"No, seriously, Shion, just look in front of you!" Mion said as she shot her sister a serious glare.

"Shī-chan!" Rena called out, getting Shion's attention, "Look out!"

"Huh?" Shion said as she turned her head back in the direction of the road and her eyes widened as she noticed a boy staggering around in front of her, "Kuso!"

The boy in question was staggering around in the middle of the road and from what Mion could see, he looked as if he was lost and was clearly disorientated. However, he did notice Shion as she came rushing towards him and moved to the side since it was clear that Shion was unable to stop in time before hitting him. Unfortunately, Shion, upon realising that she was not going to be able to stop in time had decided to veer to the side and both Shion and the boy moved in the same direction and Shion went crashing straight into him.

"Shion!" Mion called out as she stopped and got off her bike and ran over to where her sister was.

Keiichi, Rena, Satoko, Rika and Hanyū all stopped and followed suit.

"Ouch," Shion said after recovering from the collision, "Stupid brat, that hurt."

"Oh how very considerate of you, Shion," Mion said sarcastically as she glared down at her sister, "Considering that this is your fault in the first place for taking your eyes off the road."

"Well at least she didn't crash into a truck," Rika said with a shudder as she remembered her experience and how similar Shion's current experience had been.

However, unlike her, Shion had crashed into a person and not an oncoming vehicle, so she supposed that Shion should consider herself lucky in that regard since if it had been a vehicle, she would most certainly be dead if not seriously injured and like Rika with the truck, she would have no one to blame but herself.

"Yeah, that could've been a lot worse," Rena said as she looked down at the boy, "But what about him? We can't just leave him."

"Who is he?" Keiichi asked as he examined the boy who had messy shoulder-length dark reddish-brown hair that was covered with twigs and leaves.

He wore white and grey tattered trainers, blue jeans that were torn in various places, a strange looking white belt with a horizontal oval with a thick silver outline and a pure black centre at the front, a white t-shirt that was stained with dirt and mud and a red jacket with a black outline. His clothes looked old and tattered and from the looks of it, he looked as if he had been wearing nothing but the clothes he currently had on for weeks, maybe even months and they were all stained with dirt and mud and looked as if they were wet. Twigs and leaves also clung to his clothes just like with his hair.

"I wonder what happened to him," Satoko said curiously as she looked him over.

"He clearly needs help," Hanyū pointed out as she looked around the area and looking down at the boy and noticing the area they were in, "Seeing how his clothes are wet, I'm guessing that he must've been in the Onigafuchi Swamp."

"The Onigafuchi Swamp!" the others aside from Rika all exclaimed somewhat fearfully as they shuddered.

The Onigafuchi Swamp was said to be the home of the demons that were involved with the local folklore. It was believed that a thousand years ago, demons came up from the swamp and kidnapped humans and took them into the mountains to perform strange ritualistic sacrifices. Onigafuchi was the original name of the village of Hinamizawa and the swamp with the only area that retained its name after the village's name was changed to Hinamizawa due to the legends surrounding the swamp. It was still widely believed, even to this day that the demons still dwelled at the bottom of the swamp and so very few villagers dared to venture near it for fear of being "dragged under" by the demons. It was also where Furude Hikari was believed to have committed suicide after Takano had had her kidnapped after forging a suicide note and dumping her slippers at the swamp's edge. Anyway, it was believed that the swamp had a suction that caused anyone unlucky enough to fall in to be dragged to the bottom, which was probably where the whole "Home of the Demons" folklore came from and true, anyone who had been unlucky enough to fall in usually did not come out alive. The water in the swamp was thick with mud and as such, getting caught in it was similar to getting caught in quicksand. How this boy managed to get out was a mystery.

"It's a miracle that he's even alive," Mion spoke up, "You know, before Shion crashed into him, I couldn't help but notice that he looked rather disorientated and lost."

"I wonder what his story is," Rena said as she stared down at the boy with concern evident in her eyes.

"Who knows, but we can't just leave him here," Keiichi pointed out as he walked over to the boy and picked him up, "I say we take him to the Irie Clinic. I'm sure Irie-sensei will fix him up."

Everyone nodded. However, Shion walked over and slung one of his arms over the back of her head.

"I'll do it," she said with a rather guilty sigh, "After all, I'm the one who ran him over."

"I'll help," Keiichi said with a nod.

"S-s-so will I," Mion said with a bit of a stutter as she levelled a glare on her sister and then glanced at Keiichi, motioning for Shion to follow her gaze and then turned back to focus on her sister as if to say, "You're not doing anything with Kei-chan while I'm around".

Shion just nodded silently, indicating that she had gotten the message. However, despite still being miffed at having crashed and having her wager with Mion silently called off for the time being, Shion did possess enough smarts to realise that the whole thing had been her fault. She had not been looking where she was going when she should have been and despite having plausible excuses that she could use to at least try to vindicate herself, looking at the boy and seeing his current state had filled her with concern and all those excuses no longer mattered, neither did Mion's silent threat in regards to Keiichi. All she was concerned about right now was getting this mysterious boy to the Irie Clinic ASAP. He definitely did not look as if he was in the best of shape health-wise. Looking at him, she saw that as well as his dirty appearance, he also looked rather malnourished and smelled of BO, indicating that he had not bathed for quite a while, though she had to admit that the water, dirt and mud did lessen the effect of the smell.

"Come on, let's get you some help," Shion said to the unconscious boy, "Then perhaps when you recover, you can tell us who you are and what you were doing out here."

Everyone all nodded in agreement as they all decided to help in taking him to the Irie Clinic.

* * *

**Author's Notes** – This is my newest project and as mentioned in the disclaimer, it's based off Kamen Rider Chrome's Kamen Rider Shōwa and like I said, I'm not intending to plagiarise off him and have discussed this with him and I have his permission to do this fic. The only thing I realise I may be wrong about is the part about the Onigafuchi Swamp. I watched Higurashi and Higurashi Kai all the way through earlier in the year as well as the middle three episodes of Higurashi Rei and so, in regards to the Onigafuchi Swamp, my memory's a bit hazy, though I do recall something about demons coming out from the swamp and also something about kidnapping and the mountains, so forgive me if I'm wrong.


	2. His Name is Daisuke

**Higurashi no Naku Koro ni: Kamen Rider Aegis**

**His Name is Daisuke**

**Disclaimer** – I do not own anything from either Higurashi no Naku Koro ni or Kamen Rider. Higurashi is the property of Ryūkishi07, 07th Expansion and Studio Deen and Kamen Rider is the property of Shōtaro Ishinomori, Tōru Hirayama and Mainichi Broadcasting Systems Inc. Also anything based off characters, enemies etc. from other works or any characters from other works, the things that they're based on and those characters are the property of their respective creators, companies etc. Also this fic was inspired by the fic, Kamen Rider Shōwa, which is the property of Kamen Rider Chrome and following a similar setting. It is not my intention to plagiarise from him and after discussing the idea with him, I have permission to do this fic.

* * *

**Hinamizawa, XX Prefecture, Japan – Sunday 20****th**** May 1984**

The Hinamizawa Gaming Club were all currently congregating in one of the rooms in the Irie Clinic and they were currently crowding round a bed in which the mysterious boy that Shion had crashed into the previous day lay, apparently comatose. The events of the previous day were still fresh in their minds. They were all on their way home from Okinomiya after Keiichi had had a run of extremely rare good luck and managed to win most of the club games and Mion, who was usually the biggest winner had ended up having a run of rotten luck and had become the biggest loser, in which, by the rules that she, herself had established, she had to be put through a Punishment Game, much to her displeasure.

Keiichi's boasting certainly did not help matters and if that was not enough, her identical twin sister, Shion had teased her and goaded her into accepting a challenge in which if she lost, she would have become her sister's servant for a week starting Monday. In any case, Mion had accepted and Shion had sped off and had gotten so caught up in her excitement that she had taken her eyes off the road to taunt Mion further and as such, she did not notice the boy, who had been staggering out in the middle of the road until it was too late… well in reality, the boy had noticed Shion and had backed up when he saw that she was unable to stop in time, but unfortunately, Shion had also realised that she could not stop in time and had decided to veer to avoid him and she had veered in the same direction as the boy, making their collision inevitable.

Afterwards, upon noticing the boy and the condition he was in, the Gaming Club's concern for him had completely overridden everything else, including Keiichi's Punishment Game and Mion and Shion's bet. Mion had yet to suffer her punishment, but with everyone so concerned about the boy, no one really cared anymore and the punishment was forgotten about or if they did remember then they had decided that seeing to the boy's well-being took priority over everything else. Ever since Shion had crashed into him and rendered him unconscious, he had been unconscious ever since, though Dr. Irie had kindly taken him in and currently, his left arm had an IV drip attached to it, providing him with nourishment. There was also a heart monitor that registered his heartbeat.

In any case, his eyebrows suddenly twitched and his eyes clenched as he let out a groan before opening his eyes, which turned out to be a dark shade of greenish brown. Looking around, he blinked in confusion as he noticed the people all gathered round him.

"Huh, what?" he spoke in a confused tone, clearly having no idea as to where he was, "Where am I?"

His voice sounded rather strained, as if he had a sore throat, though it also sounded a bit on the deep side and had a hint of gruffness mixed in with it.

"Am I dead?" the boy went on to ask as he started looking back and forth between the Gaming Club members, "Are you all angels come to take me up to Heaven?"

The girls' faces all turned a bright shade of red as they were rendered speechless, unable to think of anything to say since it was the first time anyone had called them angels.

"No, you're not dead," Keiichi replied, seeing that the girls were all trying to regain their composure, "You're in the Irie Clinic in the village of Hinamizawa and yesterday afternoon, we found you while on our way home from the nearby town of Okinomiya."

"Huh, you found me?" the boy said, still confused as he tried to remember events prior to waking up.

However, everything that had happened before seemed to be one big jumble as a series of images flashed in his mind, but he found himself unable to piece them together as they were brief and passed by too quickly for him to gain any sense of coherence from them However, upon looking at Shion, who had just managed to compose herself, his eyes widened in recognition as he did manage to recall a girl on a bicycle who had come hurtling towards him.

"Huh, oh, gomenasai," Shion apologised upon noticing the boy's reaction and since his gaze was fixed on her, she immediately realised that he remembered what had happened the previous day, "Gomenasai, I… I wasn't looking where I was going when I should have been, it's my fault."

"Don't worry about it," the boy said assuredly as he nodded in understanding, having decided to accept Shion's explanation, "I was also at fault for being in the middle of the road, though to be perfectly honest with you, I have nothing to offer in my defence other than I didn't know that I had wandered out onto the road until after I had noticed you coming towards me."

"Just what were you doing out there in the first place?" Mion inquired curiously, "And where did you come from? When we found you, you weren't exactly in the healthiest of states."

"Um," the boy started to say as he once again tried to recall what he had been doing, but like before, he only drew up a blank as a series of mismatched images once again assaulted his mind, "I can't remember."

He then let out a rather depressed sigh as he shook his head and brought his hands up to massage his temples as he felt a headache coming on.

"You can't remember?" everyone all blurted out in unison.

"Nope, sorry," the boy said with another shake of his head.

There was clearly an aura of disbelief in the air as the Gaming Club members all turned to look at one another as they debated on whether or not to believe him.

"I'm telling the truth," the boy said as he noticed the atmosphere and sounded as if he was becoming agitated, "I know that it probably sounds rather bizarre and farfetched, but I swear to you, that I'm being truthful."

"Then what do you remember?" Mion asked, deciding that for the time being, it was best to play along.

Whether or not the boy was being truthful or not, she did not know. However, looking into his eyes and listening to the sincerity in his voice, it seemed unlikely that he was lying. Despite the fact that the sincerity could be faked, something told Mion that his sincerity was genuine since his eyes also looked sincere and genuine and Mion had been taught that when dealing with liars that sounded convincing that their eyes normally gave them away. She could always tell a liar just by studying the look in their eyes and looking at the other members of the Gaming Club; Rena especially, who also had a knack for knowing if someone was lying just be looking into their eyes, she could tell that they were coming to the same conclusion.

"So you're an amnesic?" Keiichi asked before the boy could answer Mion.

"Hai, I suppose, if that's what it's called," the boy said looking at Keiichi and then turned to face Mion, "And to answer your question, I don't remember anything prior to waking up in that swamp. I remember waking up and finding that I was facedown, floating on top of the swamp and trying to get out, though I have to admit, that was quite a struggle. I'm not sure how I managed to get out. It was like there was something beneath the surface pulling me down. I thought that I really was a goner, to be honest. However, I guess I must've gotten lucky because I managed to finally free myself and then I stumbled out onto the road where your twin crashed into me."

"Well, you don't realise just how lucky you are," Hanyū spoke up in a rather uncharacteristically serious tone, "That swamp is known as the Onigafuchi Swamp, which is said to be the home of demons that dwell beneath the surface. I don't think I've known anyone who has fallen in and has come out alive. Hardly anyone goes near that place, even today."

"The home of demons, I can believe that," the boy said with a shudder as he remembered his struggle to get out from the swamp and how he felt as if something had been trying to pull him under.

"Anyway, so you're suffering from amnesia, got it," Mion said with a nod, "Judging from the sincerity in your voice and the look in your eyes, I believe you."

The boy then relaxed somewhat, though he could still detect faint traces of suspicion among the group, but for the time being, it seemed as if they had decided to believe him for now. However, he had been telling the truth and he hoped that he would get the chance to work towards dispelling the group's lingering suspicions. After all, he was a stranger to those people and they did not know who he was or what he was like or even where he had come from. He could understand where they were coming from in that regard. For all they knew he could have been dangerous and was simply lulling them into a false sense of security before he struck. However, that was not the case and the thing was, he did not know anything about himself either prior to waking up in the Onigafuchi Swamp.

"Anyway, my name's Maebara Keiichi," Keiichi said as he decided that it was time to move on when he realised that they had not introduced themselves yet.

"And I'm Sonozaki Mion, the leader of our little group," Mion said as she introduced herself.

"I'm her ichiranseisōseiji no imōto, Sonozaki Shion and once again, sorry about yesterday," Shion spoke up as she uttered yet another apology.

"Ryūgū Rena," Rena said simply, unable to hold back a blush as she studied the boy, looking him up and down sonce she had to admit that he did indeed look ratherhandsome.

"Hōjō Satoko, Trap Master Extraordinaire," Satoko proclaimed with her hands on her hips as she spoke in a somewhat arrogant and boastful tone as she tried to present herself as being someone important, which earned an incoherent grumble from Keiichi who shot her a glare, remembering that he was the most frequent target of Satoko's traps.

"My name is Furude Hanyū and it's really nice to meet you," Hanyū said in a polite tone and followed her statement up with an equally polite bow.

"And last but not least, I'm Furude Rika, Hanyū's somewhat distant relative," Rika said in cheerful tone.

The boy just nodded.

"And my name is Hit… Hit… Hit…" he started to say, but as he started to say his name, he found himself struggling to remember.

"What, don't tell me that you've forgotten your name as well?" Mion said in a concerned tone.

"Just call me Daisuke," the boy finally said after a few more seconds of struggling before deciding to give up, "I know that my name is Daisuke, but I can't seem to remember what my family name is. All I can remember is that the first syllable is pronounced, Hit."

"Daisuke," Mion repeated with a nod and then her face lit up with a smile, "In that case, I'll just call you Dai-chan."

"Say what?" the boy, now identified as Daisuke said as his eyes widened in shock, taken aback be the use of such an affectionate honorific.

"Daisuke-kun," Rena said, flashing him a rather warm and welcoming smile, "Welcome to Hinamizawa."

"Dai-chan," Shion said with a nod, earning a glare from her sister.

"Gee, Shion, must you always copy me when it comes to addressing people?" Mion said, clearly feeling miffed, "First Kei-chan, now Dai-chan."

"What's wrong, onē, jealous?" Shion asked teasingly, "Have you fallen in love with him and now you're afraid that I'm trying to take him from you?"

"W-w-w-what!" Mion exclaimed in wide-eyed shock and disbelief as her face lit up in a bright shade of red, "N-no, you're wrong. We just met and besides, we know next to nothing about him and he hardly knows any of us."

"Then don't be so uptight," Shion said as her voice became more serious, "Besides I don't copy you all the time. Remember, Satoshi-kun? You just address him as Satoshi and I add the kun honorific at the end, so you can't accuse me of always copying you."

Mion just huffed as she realised that her sister did make a valid point as Daisuke looked on, unsure on how to react.

"So, you're family name's a mystery, but you know your given name," Rena said and Daisuke nodded as his attention was taken away from the twins.

"Uh huh, that's correct," Daisuke replied with a nod.

"Well, since you can only remember the first syllable of your family name, why don't we just give you a name until you remember?" Keiichi pondered curiously.

"What?" Daisuke said in confusion before he started to ponder the same idea himself, "You know, that doesn't sound all that bad."

"Well then, what are you planning on calling yourself, Daisuke-kun?" Rena asked curiously.

"Hmm, my family name starts with the syllable, Hit," Daisuke noted as he brought his left arm over his stomach with his hand holding his right side and had his right elbow resting on top of his left arm with the sides of his thumb and index fingers massaging his chin as he considered a list of possible names, "Well, if I'm going to choose a name, then it'll need to start with Hit and I do remember that I have a fondness for the word, Hoshi meaning star, so combing the two together, my temporary name shall be, Hitoshi Daisuke."

"Hitoshi?" Keiichi said in disappointed surprise, clearly expecting something better, "But that's already a given name. I don't know anyone going by that name personally, but I've heard titbits of conversations involving people called Hitoshi. That's not a family name, it's a given first name."

"Well I think that it's a beautiful name," Rena said as she shot a scoldful glare at Keiichi.

"Yeah, though I admit that I agree with Kei-chan, but hey, it's your decision," Mion added with a nod as she shot Keiichi a smiliar glare.

"I like it," Shion said with an approving nod.

"So do I," Satoko said with a nod.

"I do to," Hanyū said with a smile.

"Mī… Mī…," Rika said, causing Daisuke to look at her in confusion, though from the looks of her friends, it was clear that this was not the first time she had done this, "Nipā~."

She then burst out in a rather cheerful smile befitting for someone her age and followed up her statement with a nod.

Daisuke just let out a rather content laugh and nodded, deciding to just roll with it as it was clear that Rika also agreed with the others.

"Ah, I see that you're awake," a new voice said, catching everyone's attention as Dr. Irie walked in with a smile on his face.

However, upon noticing Dr. Irie's clothes, Daisuke's eyes widened in shock as he felt a wave of panic overcome him as he looked up at Irie's face , but instead of Dr. Irie's light brown hair, greyish blue eyes, rectangular glasses and sweet and kind expression, instead he saw a man with shoulder-length black hair that was parted at the front, exposing his forehead, which had a blood-red kanji tattoo depicting the number, seven in the centre and also had sharp black eyes that seemed to burn with sadistic cruelty as they stared right at him and the edges of the man's lips were curved upwards with a rather mocking and cruel grin.

"Ah, at last, I've found you," the apparition said in a rather boastfully excited and arrogant tone, "You didn't honestly think that you'd be able to elude me forever, did you…?"

However, before the apparition could finish his statement, Daisuke suddenly felt himself being shaken, which brought him back to reality and found that Rena had her hands on his shoulders and was staring at him with a look of concern and looking at the others, he could see that they were all equally concerned and perhaps even a bit fearful.

"Daisuke-kun, there's nothing to be frightened of, it's just Irie-sensei," she said as she stared back at the doctor and gave him a rather apologetic look.

"Irie-sensei…?" Daisuke asked in confusion as he realised that he had been hyperventilating and had unknowingly backed up against the back of the bed.

He still sounded somewhat fearful and gave Dr. Irie a rather unsure look, as if pondering on whether or not to trust him.

"Gomen, did I do something wrong?" Dr. Irie asked in confusion.

"No," Daisuke replied with a sigh, "Gomen, Irie-sensei, for a moment there I could've sworn that you were somebody else."

However, even as he said this, Daisuke still could not help but be on his guard and looked unsure if he wanted to trust him. He did not know what it was about him, but something about Dr. Irie had obviously sparked a memory and for a moment, Dr. Irie had transformed into someone else, though as he tried to recall the experience, he found himself drawing a blank as he could not remember what the man Dr. Irie had appeared to transform into looked like or even what he had said. However, what Daisuke did know was that it was someone that he clearly did not like and also someone who terrified him to no end.

"That's okay," Irie said with a dismissive laugh as he became cheerful and then he suddenly became serious, "Anyway, now that you've woken up, I'm going to have to run a check-up on you to see that you're alright. After all, you never know what you may have contracted and considering the state that Mion-chan and the others found you in, I have to say that it's a miracle that you're even alive."

Daisuke nodded, but he could not resist trembling as he continued to stare at the doctor, trying to figure out what it was about him that had triggered that memory. In any case, Mion had pulled Dr. Irie aside and was busy explaining to him what they had learned as the others gave him looks of concern, clearly as shaken up as he was after his memory flash induced panic attack.

"So, he's an amnesic who only remembers his given name and doesn't remember anything prior to waking up in the Onigafuchi Swamp?" Dr. Irie finally said as he summed up what Mion had told him.

"Yeah, that's about the size of it," Mion replied with a nod, "His name's Daisuke, though he doesn't remember his family name, but he does remember that the first syllable is pronounced, Hit and so he decided to go by the name, Hitoshi Daisuke until he remembers his real family name."

"I see," Dr. Irie said with a sigh as he looked towards Daisuke, who trembled fearfully upon noticing his stare, "I don't think he trusts me all that well."

"Yeah, I can see that," Mion said as she remembered Daisuke's panic attack, "I wonder what brought that on."

That had shocked her. Upon seeing Dr. Irie, Daisuke had started to panic and had backed up against the back of the bed, shaking his head while saying the word, "no" over and over again while hyperventilating at the same time and it had taken Rena shaking him to bring him out of it.

"If he's an amnesic, then the obvious answer to that would be, a memory," Dr. Irie summed up in response to Mion's statement, "Perhaps something about me triggered something that caused a memory to surface."

"But what could it have been?" Mion wondered as she looked Dr. Irie up and down before turning to look at Daisuke, who gave Dr. Irie wary looks.

"Who knows," Dr. Irie said with a shrug, "But I can honestly say that I've never met him before in my life, so it can't be me personally. It goes without saying that whatever it was he had been experiencing, it most obviously was not pleasant."

Mion nodded as she stared back at Daisuke with a look of concern. Just what could have caused him to experience such a panic attack? What happened in his past that would cause him to react in such a way at being reminded of it? Those questions plagued her mind, but she found herself shaking her head, knowing that even Daisuke himself could not remember and even if he did, Mion doubted very much that he would want to talk about it. She knew what that felt like in regards to Satoshi how he disappeared and she felt really guilty that she had been unable to do anything to help him.

* * *

Later, Daisuke had been discharged and was currently standing in the hallway of the Maebara Mansion, as it had been dubbed by the villagers. After a rather tense check-up, Dr. Irie had saw it fit to discharge him, though Daisuke suspected that his panic attack and the fact that he did not feel all that comfortable round the good doctor may have had something to do with it and Daisuke could not help but feel rather guilty. He knew that Dr. Irie was probably a really decent guy and had just been doing his job, but for some reason, Daisuke got chills just looking at him. Of course, he knew that it was not the man personally and that it was most obviously something else, but he honestly could not remember what it was. Mion and her friends had stayed with him during the check-up as they knew that he was fearful of being alone in a room with Dr. Irie and feared that he may suffer another panic attack. However, despite his uneasiness around Dr. Irie, the check-up had been thankfully uneventful and afterwards, Dr. Irie had discharged him.

He was glad to be out of his hospital gown and was currently wore a pair of new white and grey trainers, identical to the ones he had worn the previous day, a pair of brand new jeans, a brand new white t-shirt and a jacket identical to the one her had on the previous day, only instead of red, it was blue, which caused him to frown. He learned that in the period between Shion running him over and waking up that Mion and her friends had gone shopping and had bought brand new clothes for him, for which he was grateful for despite the fact that none of those people knew him all that well. He felt rather touched by their kindness. Despite being a complete stranger, they had gone out of their way to help him before they even started talking to him. The clothes he had on were basically identical to the clothes he had been wearing the previous day, only, they were not old, tattered and worn out. He was disappointed about the colour of the jacket though, but Mion had explained that the store in which she had bought it from had been sold out of red jackets and had apologised, but Daisuke assured her not to worry and had decided to just make do with the blue jacket instead.

The only part of his original outfit that he still wore was the white belt with the strange ovular buckle at the front. It seemed to be the only part of his original outfit that had not suffered due to exposure to the elements and he did not know why, but he felt strongly possessive about it. He remembered that Dr. Irie had been in the process of disposing of his old clothes, the belt included and when he saw this, he had grabbed the belt and yanked it out of the pile, proclaiming that Dr. Irie could not throw it away, which had shocked him and the others. Heck, even Daisuke himself had found himself rather shocked at how protective and possessive he had been when it came to the belt. He honestly could not explain why, but seeing that Dr. Irie would have disposed of it had filled him with rage and he also felt that if he had allowed Dr. Irie to dispose of the belt then he would eventually come to regret it since he somehow had this strange feeling that he would need it in future and so, he kept the belt.

Anyway, here he was in the Maebara Mansion listening to Keiichi as he explained the situation to his parents, Maebara Aiko and Maebara Ichirō. Since Daisuke had nowhere to go, it was agreed that he should stay in Hinamizawa for the time being. However, when it came to where he would stay, Keiichi had agreed that he would take him in since Rena was living with her father and everyone feared that her father would object to having a boy living with them out of fear that he would "defile" his little girl. Mion and Shion were out of the question since their grandmother, Sonozaki Oryō, who was the real power in the village was known for her dislike of outsiders and would see Daisuke as such and would not allow him to stay with her granddaughters. Heck, if what Daisuke heard was correct, then Oryō was not happy about Shion's presence at the Sonozaki Estate, but because Shion was her granddaughter, she was able to put up with her. Anyway, Rika, Satoko and Hanyū were also out of the question since despite living together on their own, all three girls were legally under the guardianship of the Kimiyoshi Family and despite Kimiyoshi Kiichirō's more tolerant attitude towards outsiders, having a complete stranger living with the three pre-teen girls was not something that he would likely allow due to their age and with that in mind, all that left was Keiichi, who had no reason why he could not allow Daisuke to live with him.

"Why of course he can stay here," Daisuke heard Ichirō saying after Keiichi had finished explaining the situation to his parents.

"Really?" he heard Keiichi ask, sounding hopeful.

"Why, yes, of course he can," he heard Aiko say, agreeing with her husband, "This house is pretty big and there's an extra room he can use."

Daisuke could not help but sigh in relief as Keiichi's parents had just agreed to let him stay with them.

"He can feel free to stay for as long as he likes," Ichirō said as he came out into the hallway with his wife and son following suit.

"Arigatō, otō-san, okā-san," Keiichi said in a thankful tone as he breathed a sigh of relief, making it clear that he had been fearful that his parents would refuse.

"Hear that, you'll be staying with us for the time being, Hitoshi-san," Ichirō said as he turned his head towards Daisuke and flashed him a smile.

"Arigatō, Maebara-san," Daisuke said in a polite tone as he followed it up with a bow.

"Of course, just so you both know, we'll be going to the police with this," Aiko said as she shot her son and his new friend a stern look before focusing on Daisuke, "No offence, Hitoshi-san, but you may be a missing person for all we know."

"I understand, Aiko-san," Daisuke said in a polite tone with an understanding nod.

Aiko then nodded in acknowledgement before turning and then made her way to the kitchen.

"You can have the guest room that's right next to Keiichi's," Ichirō said simply.

"Once again, arigatō, Maebara-san," Daisuke reiterated before his look became serious, "However, I must inform you that my name is Daisuke, yes, but the name, Hitoshi is something I made up. In truth, I don't remember my own family name, but I do know that the first syllable is pronounced, Hit and I came up with the name, Hitoshi due to my fondness of the word, Hoshi meaning star."

"Yes, Keiichi did say that you were suffering from amnesia," Ichirō said with a nod as he understood, "Not to worry, though, I'm sure that you'll recover your memories eventually."

"Yeah," Daisuke said with a nod as Ichirō turned and followed his wife.

"Man, this house is so big, you must be rich, Kei," Daisuke said as he turned to face Keiichi.

"We're really not that rich, and if you insist on calling me Kei, then I'm gonna call you, Dai," Keiichi replied as he decided to explain the reason why his house was so big despite his family's lack of finances.

"Whatever rocks your boat," Daisuke replied with a shrug.

"Anyway, as I said, my family's really all that rich," Keiichi went on to explain, "However, otō-san's an artist and the majority of the space in the house accommodates otō-san's art studio. So despite the size of the house, we're really not that rich."

"Oh, I see," Daisuke said in amazement.

* * *

**Monday 21****st**** May 1984**

The next day was the start of the school week and for school, Daisuke wore a spare uniform that Keiichi had, which was identical to Keiichi's own. Also, Daisuke had been experimenting with his hair, which was giving him problems due to the fact that he had a double-crown with his second crown situated on the right side of his head near the top and so, the right side had more hair than the left. Anyway, after managing to sort out his hair, which was neatly combed, he and Keiichi had both met Rena when she came over to the house to "pick them up" and then they walked to school, meeting up with Mion by an old watermill that was still in working order.

As Mion explained, the school was really a storage facility for the local Forestry Preserve that was on loan since the old school building in the village had become so old and dilapidated that it had fallen into disrepair and the nearest school that was situated in the nearby town of Okinomiya was just too far a commute, though Daisuke put that down to just sheer laziness on the part of the villagers. The number of children attending the makeshift school was so low, that they had only one classroom with children from different grade levels. There were only two teachers, the principal and the class teacher, a woman by the name of Chie Rumiko and the older children were obligated to help teach the younger children in the lower grade levels during breaks.

However, children were allowed to choose what they wore to school, so long as it was acceptable. Most of the younger children wore the mandatory uniforms for the shōgakkō based in Okinomiya despite it not being a mandatory prerequisite. Rena wore her old school uniform from the chūgakkō she had attended while in Ibaraki and Keiichi wore his old uniform from the kōtōgakkō he attended before moving to Hinamizawa. Only, Mion, Shion, Rika, Hanyū and Satoko wore casual clothes, though Shion's outfit did look a bit like a school uniform.

Anyway, Daisuke was currently standing next to Rumiko as she was in the process of introducing him to the class.

"Class, we have a new student joining us today," Rumiko said as she turned to face Daisuke, presented him to the rest of the class, "His name is Hitoshi Daisuke and I trust that you'll all make him feel welcome."

Daisuke nodded as he walked out in front of Rumiko and gave a polite bow.

"Konichiwa, mina," he greeted in a polite tone, "My name's Hitoshi Daisuke and just so you know, I'm currently suffering from amnesia and Hitoshi's not my real family name."

He then paused and turned his attention towards Rumiko, who looked rather stuuned at the revelation.

"I know you have me marked down as Hitoshi Daisuke, but I'll set the record straight," he went on, stunning the members of the Gaming Club as they had not expected him to come clean about his name, "Gomen, Chie-sensei. My name is Daisuke, but my family name is made up since I can't remember what it is. However, I do remember that the first syllable is pronounced, Hit and I combined that with the word, Hoshi, meaning star due to my fondness for the word."

Rumiko just nodded in acceptance.

"Right, and so until you remember your true family name, you want to be called Hitoshi Daisuke, is that correct?" she asked, completely astonished by the young man's honesty.

"Hai," Daisuke said with a nod.

* * *

Later, during the break, Daisuke sat at his desk as the other students all crowded round him. It was customary in Hinamizawa that when a new student joined the class in the middle of the school year for the students to ask the new student questions in a bid to get to know them better and Mion, as Class President had the honours of announcing it.

"Right, you know what time it is, don't you?" she said as she was bursting with enthusiasm, "It's time that we get to know Dai-chan better by asking him questions."

She then nodded, indicating that it was okay for the questioning to start.

One boy nervously stepped forward.

"Um, um, you said that you were suffering from amnesia, right?" he said, not really having all that much confidence in himself.

"Uh huh," Daisuke said with a nod, "Yep, I have amnesia and I don't remember anything prior to two days ago."

"How did you end up here in Hinamizawa?" another boy with more confidence than the first asked as the first boy retreated back into the crowd.

"I don't really know," Daisuke answered honestly, "However, I do remember being rather disorientated and lost and the first thing I realise is that Shion-san's rushing towards me on her bike."

Shion flinched as she heard this as she remembered that incident all too well.

"And yes, she did collide with me," Daisuke went on, speaking up before anyone else could ask any more questions.

"Why did Shion-san hit you?" a girl asked curiously.

"Hit me… no, she collided with me," Daisuke corrected as he gave Shion a rather apologetic look, "Anyway, I don't know the full details, but from what I've been told, she and her sister were having a little race and she was so busy taunting Mion-san that she wasn't looking where she was going."

Shion responded with a groan, not really happy at having being reminded of that.

"Where are you staying?" a boy that the Gaming Club recognised as Tomita Daiki asked, "Mion-san and Shion-san's sobo, Oryō-sama doesn't like outsiders that much."

Both Sonozaki twins groaned in unison at having been reminded of their grandmother's wariness and distrust of outsiders. Of course, just because Oryō did not like outsiders, it did not mean to say that she was intolerant of them. Contrary to what many in the village thought, Oryō actually had quite a high tolerance level towards outsiders. After all, she had been instrumental in selling off land that the Sonozaki Family owned for housing development in a bid to encourage people to move to Hinamizawa. Despite her position and seemingly cold and cruel attitude, Oryō was actually pretty nice once everyone got past her cold hard exterior and she was also pretty smart as well and saw that the traditionalist views of the village were causing the village to stagnate and so, despite her dislike for outsiders, she had decided that a compromise was in order to "clear the air" as she put it. She had compared the stagnation of Hinamizawa to a stuffy room and by selling off the land for housing; she was "opening the window to let fresh air in". So despite her dislike for outsiders, she was not above tolerating and even working with them for a greater purpose.

However, that did not mean to say that she approved of Daisuke. Mion remembered when she had informed her grandmother of what happened and how she and the others had come to meet him that she had been rather distrustful and disapproved of him. However, once again, Oryō displayed her tolerance for outsiders and said that Daisuke could stay in the village so long as he did not bother her and did not come anywhere near the Sonozaki Estate. In other words, so long as Daisuke stayed out of her hair, Oryō had basically said that Daisuke could do whatever he liked.

"I'm staying with Kei," Daisuke replied as he motioned his head towards Keiichi, "As you say, Mion-san and Shion-san's sobo hates outsiders, so staying with them in out of the question, especially considering that she barely tolerates Shion-san's presence."

Shion winced at hearing that as she remembered that her relationship with her grandmother was still rather rocky despite the fact that she had allowed her to move back into the Sonozaki Estate.

"We like to call her Oni-baba," she said deciding to let Daisuke know how it was.

"And we don't call her obā-sama, like one would expect; its bā-chan," Mion added, putting in her two cents, "If I'm not calling her Oni-baba like Shion here, then its bā-chan."

"I see," Daisuke apologised as he gave the twins a brief glance, "Okay, you call her bā-chan, got it."

He then turned back to face the crowd of students.

"Anyway, Rena-san's also out of the question because she lives with her otō-san and he might object to having me living with them for fear that I may end up "tainting" his musume-chan," Daisuke went on as he continued to answer Tomita's question, "And despite living alone, Rika-chan, Hanyū-chan and Satoko-san are legally under Kimiyoshi-san's guardianship and I don't think he'd take too kindly to having a stranger living with them since they're not even teenagers yet."

"It's really different from when you were asked questions, eh, Hanyū?" Rika whispered to her ancestor in her adult voice.

"Hai, I remember that I was rather timid and shy," Hanyū admitted with a nod.

"Not to mention that Nata-onna over there tried taking you home on three separate occasions," Rika went on causing Hanyū to shudder as she did remember that Rena did try abducting her because she found her cute; the third time after being tied up and yet, she managed to easily break out of her restraints as if they had been made from spaghetti strings.

"Okay!" Mion shouted rather excitedly as she waved her arms up and down, "If there are no further questions, then let's get into the really intimate stuff, like when it's standing at attention, how big is your…?"

However, before she could finish, Rena suddenly lashed out without any prior warning, delivering a really vicious punch to Mion's jaw, sending her flying out the room and into the corridor, causing a crack to appear in the wall of the corridor from where Mion made contact.

"Honestly, Mī-chan, have you no sense of decency?" Rena said as she shot a furious and outraged glare out the door at Mion, who lay in a crumpled heap out in the corridor, "There are children present. You shouldn't bring up some vulgarity in their presence."

"And you girls call me a pervert," Keiichi said as he blinked in shock; shocked over what Rena had done and how serious she was.

"Um, what are they talking about, Rika?" Satoko asked curiously as she was surprised at what Rena had done and honestly did not understand what the fuss was about.

"Probably a grownup thing that we're too young to know about, Satoko," Rika replied, though despite understanding what the fuss was about, she was equally stunned since she had not expected Rena to react the way she did.

"That's right, it's something that you'll both learn when you're older," Daisuke said as he recovered from his initial shock as he made it clear that he had overheard their conversation; not only at Mion for daring to ask such a question, but at Rena for reacting the way she did.

"No fair," Satoko huffed, not pleased at being kept out of the loop.

"Unfortunately, Satoko-san, life's not fair," Daisuke said with a shrug.

"Ryūgū-san!" Rumiko's voice came, causing Rena's anger to dissipate as she noticed the teacher standing by the door with her back to Mion, all the while glaring furiously at her, "Though I am aware of what Sonozaki-san said, in future when reprimanding someone for bringing up vulgar topics, do not resort to violence!"

"Gomen, Chie-sensei," Rena sighed with a gulp, only apologising because she knew that it was expected of her.

* * *

Later, Daisuke was walking round the village with Rena, who had agreed to show him around. Mion and Shion were expected back at the Sonozaki Estate and Keiichi's parents needed him to help round the house. As for Rika, Hanyū and Satoko, since they were pre-teens and he was a stranger, he felt that it would not be a good idea to be seen alone with them for fear that the villagers may misunderstand his intentions and since Rena was the only one with free time on her hands she had agreed to show him around. From what he had learned about the village so far, the villagers were all friendly enough, but he could sense that they had a sense of wariness about them whenever he interacted with them. That was understandable. He was not from Hinamizawa and therefore an outsider and he did have enough intelligence to know that when it came to isolated rural communities such as Hinamizawa, the community was so tight-knit and everyone practically knew everyone else and they were used to one another. However, when it came to outsiders, they were very suspicious and wary since they did not know who they were or what their intentions were and with that in mind, he honestly could not blame them for being wary. However, he was thankful that they kept it beneath the surface and were friendly towards him, but he could tell that they were all watching him; judging me and ready to change their attitude at the first sign of something they did not like.

After school, he had learned about the Gaming Club that Mion had started up a few years back. The club consisted of the people who had found him and in fact, he had learned that they had been on their way home after a day of club activities in the nearby town of Okinomiya when they found them. They had offered him a place, but Daisuke politely declined, saying that since Keiichi's parents were going to file a police report, then the chances were that he might not be there all that long since his family would undoubtedly seek to reclaim him and take him home. However, Mion, who had developed a massive welt on her left cheek from where Rena had punched her, had managed to talk him into staying to at least observe how they operated.

Needless to say, it had been quite the experience. Rena had explained to him what the rules of the club were in that club members had to strive to win with a full-hearted attitude, had to do whatever it took to win, even if it meant cheating and that losers would be put through Punishment Games, which they had to go through no matter what. He had seen the Punishment Games and found them to be rather humiliating, though maybe it was because Keiichi was the one suffering them and as a fellow boy, seeing his friend being forced to wear rather humiliating and girly clothing could be interpreted as an attack on masculinity. Nonetheless, Keiichi had told him that he was normally the biggest loser and so, he was used to it and on the few occasions that he did win, he always paid the girls back in full. As it turned out, Keiichi talked a big game, but when push came to shove, it turned out that he was just all talk and from what he could see, it seemed that Keiichi was the club's designated butt monkey and Daisuke could not help but wonder if that had anything to do with the fact that he was the only boy in the club.

In any case, Keiichi had explained that as far as Punishment Games went, in the beginning they had been fairly light; like the first time he lost, Keiichi recalled that Mion had just doodled on his face with a felt-tipped pen and only gradually did the Punishment Games get harsher and Keiichi did tell him that whenever he made the girls go through Punishment Games, he always made sure that they were proportionate to the Punishment Games he went through and confessed to having lots of ideas on what to do with the girls, but refused to implement them because they "crossed the line" as it was. In truth there were no limits in place on what winners could do to the losers and with that in mind, Daisuke found himself agreeing with Keiichi when he said that he feared that someone was going to eventually suffer a Punishment Game that would go too far and cause great damage to them and with that in mind, Daisuke decided to talk to Mion about putting limitations in place before someone ended up accidentally doing something terrible and he knew that unless something was done, it was not a question of if, but a question of when that would occur.

"Hey, Daisuke-kun, what are you thinking about?" Rena asked him bringing him out of his thoughts and back to reality.

"Huh, oh nothing, really," Daisuke said simply as he shook his head, "Once again, Rena-san, arigatō. I can't thank you enough for agreeing to show me round the place."

Rena could not help but blush at Daisuke's compliment as she tensed up briefly.

"It's nothing, really," she replied as she composed herself, "Rena actually hasn't got anything to do with her time since Mī-chan and Shī-chan are at their estate, Keiichi-kun's helping out with his ryōshin and Rika-chan, Satoko-chan and Hanyū-chan are off doing their own thing."

"Oh, they're probably just at home," Daisuke said dismissively, though he did notice that Rena had referred to herself in the third person, "I could've asked them to show me around, but I don't think the villagers trust me all that much to be honest and seeing me in the company of three pre-teen children with no one else around might give them the wrong idea. I am an outsider, after all."

"Don't be ridiculous," Rena said in protest, "Rika-chan's pretty much revered by the rest of the village. I'm sure that she could argue your case."

"That's the point, Rika-chan's revered as you said, but would the villagers be in a mood to listen to her?" Daisuke replied with an unknowing sigh, "Anyway, thanks again, Rena-san."

Once again, Rena blushed.

"Haū~," she said in a gushing tone as she blush a bright shade of red, "Stop, you're embarrassing Rena."

That was another thing he took note of. Rena's personality was an enigma. Usually she was rather sweet and friendly, though at times, she came across as a bit of an airhead. However, he had learned from witnessing her punching out Mion and from the others that Rena was not a girl anyone wanted to get angry. Rena could get quite scary when she was angry and Keiichi even told him that on more than one occasion, while seeing Rena in one of her moods that he feared that she was going to kill someone since she often came across as frighteningly murderous at times and there was also the fact that Rena tended to address herself in the third person at times, which he had picked up while observing the Gaming Club.

However, despite that, Rena also had what the others had dubbed Kawaī Mode, a state she entered whenever she saw something that she perceived as cute or when she was embarrassed and more often than naught, whenever seeing something she perceived as cute, she would often attempt to take it home with her regardless of whether whatever it belonged to her or not and this even extended to people; like Satoko, Rika and Hanyū, mostly whenever they were wearing outfits that made them look cute as part of their Punishment Games. In fact, Daisuke had learned that when Hanyū was first introduced to the school, Rena had tried to abduct her on three separate occasions and despite tying her up after the second attempt, come the third attempt; Rena had easily freed herself as if her restraints were made of tissue paper. It went without saying that while in Kawaī Mode, Rena's physical strength seemed to increase to phenomenal levels, which was how she managed to break her restraints and she also had no qualms about putting her increased strength to use whenever someone got between her and her "take-homes" and also, he learned that Rika and Satoko occasionally took advantage of Rena's Kawaī Mode on occasion.

"So then, I guess you've shown me everything, isn't that right?" Daisuke said as he remembered that he had seen everything; including the Furude Shrine and the Saiguden, which Rena had warned him not to go anywhere near since only members of the priest's family were allowed to go in and anyone else had to have the priest's permission before they entered.

"There's one more place left for Rena to show you, Daisuke-kun," Rena said after managing to compose herself, "How would you like to help Rena treasure hunting?"

"Huh, treasure hunting?" Daisuke said questioningly as he thought it over and then shrugged, "Sure, I don't see why not."

Rena's face lit up as she clasped her hands in front of her like an excited toddler as a cute smile adorned her face.

"Now, you're the one who's looking cute," Daisuke laughed playfully.

"Haū~," Rena said as her face became a bright shade of red, feeling rather embarrassed as Daisuke's compliment.

"If you're not careful, perhaps someone might end up taking you home with them," Daisuke went on jokingly.

"Haū~, haū~, haū~," Rena went on, bring her hands up to her cheeks and involuntarily swinging her body from side to side and Daisuke just gave a rather content laugh.

"Anyway, let's go treasure hunting," he said, deciding that he had embarrassed her enough.

It took a few seconds for Rena to compose herself, but once she did, she then nodded and as they walked towards the junkyard, which used to be the dam construction site on the edge of Hinamizawa, but ever since the dam project had been called off, it had become an illegal dumping ground and had amassed quite a lot of trash over the past six years. Items left there ranged from the very small to the very big and there were even quite a few vehicles, including an old van that had been hollowed out and had become Rena's makeshift base that she retreated to whenever she was sad or if something was troubling her and inside, Rena had transformed it into a makeshift home and stored the various items she had collected on her past treasure hunts.

"By the way, Rena-san, I can't help but ask… well yesterday at the clinic when Mion-san and Shion-san were arguing that they mentioned someone by the name of Satoshi," Daisuke said in a rather nervous tone, causing Rena to stop and tense up; however, Daisuke noticed this, "Of course, if you don't want to talk about it, that's okay. If it's something that hurts to talk about, I'll wait till you're ready and if you'll never be ready, that's okay. None of my business anyway, but I'm just curious."

Rena nodded and then let out a sigh.

"Satoshi-kun's full name is Hōjō Satoshi," she said as she decided to come clean.

"Wait, Hōjō… is he…?" Daisuke started to say in shocked surprise as he remembered that Satoko's family name was Hōjō.

"He's Satoko-chan's ani; her nī-nī; that's what she calls him," Rena went on with a sigh.

"What happened to him?" Daisuke asked curiously, but as he thought about the name, Satoshi, he could not help but feel a sense of familiarity with it.

Of course, he kept this to himself since he knew that the Satoshi Rena was talking about and the Satoshi that he probably knew, whomever that may be, were two totally different people. Since he was suffering from amnesia, he honestly could not recall anyone by that name, but since the name seemed familiar to him, he guessed that he must've known someone going by that name at some point prior, but despite his amnesia, he knew for a fact that it was not Hōjō Satoshi.

"He disappeared two years ago," Rena said simply.

"What, disappeared?" Daisuke said in confusion, "You mean like, he fled?"

Rena shook her head and glared at Daisuke, furious that he suggested such a notion.

"No, he didn't flee and please, do not insult Satoshi-kun!" Rena warned, looking rather upset.

"Gomen," Daisuke apologised as he noticed how upset Rena had become, "If you like, we can talk about something else and I won't bring it up again."

"No," Rena said, shaking her head, "It's okay. You just made a slipup, it happens."

Daisuke just nodded.

"Anyway, six years ago the government were planning on building a dam that would have submerged the entire village," Rena started to explain and Daisuke decided to listen intently and wait till she was finished before opening his mouth, "Naturally many of the villagers weren't too happy about that and resisted. However, there was a group who supported the dam and their leader was Satoshi-kun and Satoko-chan's chichi; he led this group… well actually, he was their gifu or stepfather. I don't know the full story behind that, but anyway, the dam project came to a head when Hōjō-san stood up to Oryō-sama, blaming her and the anti-dam movement of ruining their opportunity to leave the village. I wasn't there at the time, so I couldn't tell you what happened, but it had ended in violence and Oryō-sama warned Hōjō-san to "watch his back" in future. Anyway, the dam project was eventually abandoned, but those who had supported it were persecuted and denounced as traitors, including the Hōjō Family and unfortunately, this extended to Satoshi-kun and Satoko-chan."

"What?" Daisuke exclaimed in shock, unable to help himself, "You mean that Satoshi-san and Satoko-san were both persecuted as well? What did they have to do with the dam project?"

"Absolutely nothing," Rena replied in disgust as she remembered how the villagers' attitude towards Satoshi and Satoko had been, "However, they were Hōjōs and in many of the villagers' minds, they were just as guilty as their ryōshin and as such, acceptable targets and it didn't help that two years later in the June of 1980 that both Hōjō-san and his tsuma died after falling from an observation balcony in a nearby park. Apparently, they leaned over too far and the guardrail had given way due to lack of maintenance and so Satoshi-kun and Satoko-chan ended up living with their oji and oba, who were not nice people and constantly abused them."

Daisuke flinched at the rising anger in Rena's voice as he listened.

"Mī-chan wanted to help, but her sobo told her not to," Rena went on, completely unaffected by Daisuke's reaction, "She saw the situation for what it was and knew that Satoshi-kun and Satoko-chan had nothing to do with the dam, but her sobo refused to listen and so, Mī-chan decided to exercise what little power she had and established the school as a safe zone for them both. The rule was, "Leave the discrimination against the Hōjōs at the door" and to keep them away from their abusive oji and oba for as long as possible, Mī-chan founded the Gaming Club."

"Wow, you mean to say that your club started as a means of helping the Hōjō Kyōdai?" Daisuke said in astonishment as he silently praised Mion for her thinking.

"Uh huh," Rena replied both looking away, "I was born here in Hinamizawa and my ryōshin were both fashion designers and we finally moved to Ibaraki for the sake of… okā-san's career."

Daisuke's eyes widened in shock as he was completely taken aback by the amount of hatred and venom within Rena's voice as she spoke of her mother and he could not help but shudder as he saw the amount of raw passionate fury in her eyes. However, upon noticing that he was staring Rena levelled him a glare.

"And that's something that I don't want to talk about," she said simply in a tone of finality that made it clear of where she stood and that she would not budge not matter what.

"F-f-fair e-e-e-enough," Daisuke stuttered with a nod, though he had to admit that Rena's sudden change in mood shocked him to say the least, "Not my business anyway."

"Anyway, a series of events caused me and otō-san to return to Hinamizawa and that when I met Satoshi-kun," Rena went on with a sad sigh as her anger over her mother dissipated.

"Was he your boyfriend?" Daisuke asked curiously as he was interested what their past relationship was.

"What, oh no… we didn't see each other like that," Rena said with a blush as she frantically shook her head, "We were just friends. Anyway, Shī-chan's the one who fell in love with Satoshi-kun, not me."

"What, Shion-san?" Daisuke asked curiously.

Rena nodded.

"I don't know the full story behind that," she confessed with a sigh, "But two years ago before he disappeared, he had a run in with Shī-chan and Shī-chan's been in love with him ever since."

Daisuke just nodded, knowing that he was missing a few things, but decided that he would wait till the others were ready to talk before asking them to fill him in.

"Anyway, during the annual Watanagashi Festival two years ago, Satoshi's oba was murdered; found after been beaten to death and not long after that, Satoshi-kun vanished," Rena went on with a sigh, "And Satoko-chan's been living with Rika-chan ever since."

"And where are Rika-chan's ryōshin?" Daisuke asked curiously as he realised that he had no idea why Rika was under the Kimiyoshi Family's guardianship.

Rena tensed up yet again as Daisuke noted that she was debating whether or not to tell him and he could tell that the experience was rather painful for her.

"Okay, tell you what, I'll drop the subject for now," he said with a nod, "It's obviously something you're not comfortable talking about and I don't want to push you. Let's just go treasure hunting, shall we?"

Almost immediately, Rena's face lit up with a rather bright smile and to Daisuke, it was as if their discussion had never happened.

"Yes, let's go, Rena can't wait to see what sort of cute things she's gonna find today," Rena said as she beamed with joy and started to skip as they walked towards the junkyard.

"My, what a strange girl," Daisuke thought as he looked Rena up and down and he just could not help but blush.

* * *

Later, it was a clear starry night and Daisuke and Rena both sat atop Rena's van with a battery-powered lamp providing them with light. The lamp sat between them as they both looked up at the stars in the sky and saw them twinkling away like nobody's business. Anyway, upon arriving at the junkyard, Daisuke had learned that what Rena believed was treasure actually turned out to be junk and that she also had a strange definition of cute since none of the items she had collected looked cute to him. However, he had decided to just go along with it seeing how Rena was so happy, he figured that whereas what she collected was junk to most people was definitely treasure to her despite the fact that most of the items would not sell for a reasonable price at any auctions.

"One man's trash is another man's treasure," he thought to himself as he tried to reason Rena's strange habit, "Though what she sees in those things, I'll probably never know."

"Hey, Daisuke-kun," Rena said as she moved closer to him and snuggled up into his side.

"Y-yeah, what is it, Rena-san?" he asked nervously, not sure how to handle Rena's close proximity to him.

"Arigatō," she whispered softly, "Thanks for accompanying Rena here today. Ever since Keiichi-kun arrived here last year, treasure hunting alone is rather depressing."

"You mean that Kei always accompanies you?" Daisuke asked curiously.

"Not all the time," Rena replied, shaking her head, "Before Keiichi-kun came, Rena often came here alone. Before then, not even Mī-chan, Satoko-chan or Rika-chan knew about this place. When Keiichi-kun arrived, things changed and all of a sudden, Rena wasn't alone anymore. Not only did Keiichi-kun come with me, but also Mī-chan and the others as well. However, Rena's grown so used to them that whenever she comes here to hunt for treasure alone; it's just not the same."

"I see, so with everyone mostly busy, you just wanted someone to accompany you, is that it?" Daisuke asked simply.

"Hai," Rena admitted with a nod.

Daisuke nodded with a smile.

"Glad I could be of help," he stated contently.

Rena just nuzzled her head into his shoulder and Daisuke could not help but feel a bit awkward and so decided to start a conversation of his own.

"You know, Rena-san, I may have amnesia and don't know anything about myself aside from my name," he started to explain, "As I told you before, the reason I chose Hitoshi as my temporary family name is because I have a fondness for the word, Hoshi."

"I gather that's one thing you do remember," Rena said as she let herself relax and felt so at peace with herself.

"Yeah, I suppose it is," Daisuke said as realisation washed over him, "And another thing that I remember, my fondness for the word Hoshi, it seems to come from starry nights such as this one."

"Really?" Rena asked in wonder.

"Yeah, I can't remember clearly, but I think that I always did like starry nights," Daisuke went on as he realised that he often did enjoy starry nights despite not remembering any previous occasions in which he had sat underneath the stars, "Something about the stars seems to just make me feel at peace with myself; that I can just let go of all my problems and just relax."

That much he could admit was true. He may not remember the previous occasions, but the feelings he experienced then had not left him. Somehow, he just knew that this was not the first time he had sat underneath a star-ridden sky. In fact he could basically feel that he had done this before quite frequently and like he had told Rena, it gave him a feeling of peace. The night was indeed peaceful and he felt as if he could just lie back, close his eyes and just forget everything. He could just forget about his amnesia, forget about Dr. Irie and whatever it was about him that set him on edge and forget about everything else that was bad in the world. He found himself fighting the urge to lie down and close his eyes. Shaking his head he turned and looked down at Rena, who had apparently also been affected by the peaceful aura and had fallen asleep.

"Come on, Rena-san," he said with a chuckle as he slowly stood up and gently manoeuvred Rena so that she would not fall and picked her up, carrying her bridal style with her head resting against his chest, "Let's get you home… and hope that your chichi doesn't misunderstand the situation and skewers me alive."

He then let out a rather unsure laugh as he remembered what the others had told him about Rena's father. He seemed like a nice guy, but Daisuke knew that Rena was probably all he had and after their earlier discussion, he had learned that Rena absolutely hated her mother and he guessed that her parents must have divorced and from Rena's attitude, it was clear that she believed that her mother was the one who had been at fault. Anyway, since Rena was all Mr. Ryūgū had, he had visions of him being the overprotective father with a kill first, ask questions later policy.

* * *

Meanwhile in an unknown location inside a mountain range… or rather on the bottom floor of the facility underneath the mountain range, the Kagemaru Bunshin clone known as Ichigō had just entered Reigō's room and like before had dropped to one knee and bowed respectively.

"Reigō-sama, I realise that you probably already know this, but Shishigō has finally been located," he said in a respectably polite tone.

"Yes, and I find it most intriguing," Reigō said as he massaged his chin with his fingers, "As I understand it, he's been located in the rural village of Hinamizawa."

"A police report with someone matching Shishigō's civilian description was filed at the Okinomiya Keisatsusho a few hours ago," Ichigō reported, keeping his tone professional.

"Yes, I am aware and it is indeed Shishigō," Reigō said, sounding a bit annoyed.

"Gomenasai, Reigō-sama," Ichigō apologised respectfully, "It was not my intention to offend you."

"Yeah, yeah, you were just trying to make things look more normal," Reigō said dismissively as he calmed down, "Anyway, we will not apprehend him straight away."

"Hai, Reigō-sama, I understand," Ichigō said as he moved to stand up.

"We'll send Jūgogō to observe him for the time being," Reigō instructed with a rather evil smile as he started to ponder to himself, "Hinamizawa, how ironic that you would end up there, musuko-chan."

Ichigo just ignored him and left, knowing that his presence was no longer necessary.

* * *

**Author's Notes** – Another chapter done and I have news. I've decided to change the title to Kamen Rider Aegis since thinking it over, Kamen Rider Protector sounds so simple and boring and Aegis sounds more exotic and it was a shield used by the Greek gods, Zeus and Athena. This is just the beginning and next chapter will see Kamen Rider Aegis in action as he takes on the dreaded the Shadirā.


	3. Enter Aegis

**Higurashi no Naku Koro ni: Kamen Rider Aegis**

**Enter Aegis**

**Disclaimer** – I do not own anything from either Higurashi no Naku Koro ni or Kamen Rider. Higurashi is the property of Ryūkishi07, 07th Expansion and Studio Deen and Kamen Rider is the property of Shōtaro Ishinomori, Tōru Hirayama and Mainichi Broadcasting Systems Inc. Also anything based off characters, enemies etc. from other works or any characters from other works, the things that they're based on and those characters are the property of their respective creators, companies etc. Also this fic was inspired by the fic, Kamen Rider Shōwa, which is the property of Kamen Rider Chrome and following a similar setting. It is not my intention to plagiarise from him and after discussing the idea with him, I have permission to do this fic.

* * *

**Hinamizawa, XX Prefecture, Japan – Friday 15****th**** June 1984 (Roughly one month later)**

It was another bright and sunny day in Hinamizawa. The sun shone down, bathing the village in its warm golden glow as birds chirped and cicadas sang. There was no breeze in the air, so the temperature outside was really high and anyone caught outside really would not have minded if they had a nice cold glass of lemonade or some other cold drink. Many people out walking mainly stuck to the shade wherever they could find it and wore sunhats in an effort to create some shade whenever shade was not available.

Even the school was feeling the heat as class had just finished and the only ones in the classroom were the members of the Hinamizawa Gaming Club along with their newest friend, Hitoshi Daisuke. It had been about a month since the others had discovered Daisuke after Shion had crashed into him and in the short time he had been there, he had settled in quite well. He was currently staying at the Maebara Mansion with Keiichi and he still had not recovered his memories and no one had answered the police report that the Maebaras had filed either. He found that to be quite disappointing as he had been expecting someone to recognise him and come to reclaim him, but no one turned up. So, he remained in Hinamizawa with the Maebaras taking care of him.

He could not help but think back to his first day in Hinamizawa… well actually, it had technically been third day since the Gaming Club had found him and he had slipped into unconsciousness after Shion collided with him and had remained unconscious throughout the night before waking up the next day, in which he had introduced himself and his living arrangements had been sorted. However, the day after that, he had gone to the local school and learned a lot about the people who had found him, especially Rena, who had agreed to show him around after school and they ended up going "treasure hunting" in the nearby junkyard and had stayed out till late into the night. It was during his time with Rena that he learned about Hōjō Satoshi, Satoko's older brother and that he disappeared two years previously. He also learned a bit about Rena in that she and her parents had moved to Ibaraki and that her father and mother had gotten a divorce, which caused her and her father to move back to Hinamizawa, despite Rena not mentioning it aloud, he could tell that much and judging from the amount of hatred and venom Rena had had in her voice as she had mentioned her mother, it was clear that Rena obviously believed that the divorce had been her mother's fault.

Anyway, since then, he had not mentioned Satoshi to anyone and neither did he bring up Rena's past since Rena had made it perfectly clear that it was something that she did not want to talk about. As far as he was concerned, none of that was his business anyway. In any case, Rena had fallen asleep in the junkyard and Daisuke had taken her home, though he did fear that her father may have become overprotective and would have misunderstood Daisuke's intentions. Thankfully, he had been grateful, even after Daisuke had sworn to him that he had not "defiled" his little girl. However, the elder Ryūgū had just dismissed him, though Daisuke could see that he had been really tired and probably too tired to chase him or even think straight. Afterwards, he had returned to the Maebara Mansion and apologised to Ichirō and Aiko for being out so late; that he and Rena had had such a wonderful time together that they had lost track of time, which was true. They both had gotten so caught up in their "treasure hunt" that time just flew by.

Anyway, so as not to seem like he was freeloading off the Maebaras, Daisuke had managed to get a job as a paper delivery boy and did his paper route every day, borrowing Keiichi's bike as he did not have enough money to go out and buy his own. He always brought the bike back before it was time to go to school and after spending so long living with Keiichi; he learned that Rena coming to pick them up and their meeting up with Mion by the watermill was their customary routine. Also, since he was now living in Hinamizawa and with delivering everyone's papers in the mornings, the villagers had gotten used to him and had warmed up to him quite well. No longer did he detect auras of suspicion and uneasiness whenever he interacted with them. Even Oryō, who still had a low opinion of him had warmed up somewhat in that she tolerated him coming to the Sonozaki Estate to deliver everyone's newspapers, but she had made it clear that he was only to deliver the papers and then he was to vacate the premises. He was doing his part for the upkeep of the village and with that in mind; the villagers saw no reason to be suspicious of him.

"Okay, everyone," Mion's voice came, bringing Daisuke out of his thoughts and back to reality, "Before we get Club Activities underway, I have a very special announcement to make."

Daisuke paid Mion no heed. He was not technically a member of the Gaming Club despite staying behind. He was basically just an observer who watched as they played their games and went through Punishment Games. He had been offered a place multiple time, but he had politely declined each time using the possibility of someone turning up to claim him and taking him away as an excuse despite the fact that even after all this time, no one had turned up who remembered him.

"I would formally like to welcome our newest member to the group, Hitoshi Daisuke," Mion went on as she stood up and had her arms outstretched in Daisuke's direction.

"Huh, me?" Daisuke said, blinking in confusion as he did a double take.

"Of course, we're inducting you into the Club," Mion said with a nod.

"But…" Daisuke started to protest.

"Come on, Daisuke-kun, please…" Rena pleaded as she clasped her hands in front of her and gave Daisuke a sad puppy-dog eye look in her eyes.

"How about it?" Shion asked as she looked on, also eager for Daisuke to join.

"You do hang out with us a lot," Satoko pointed out.

"Hai, so you're already a member in all but name," Hanyū added with a nod.

"Besides, if you join, I'll no longer be the only guy here," Keiichi spoke up, adding in his two cents.

"Yeah, and don't bother saying that someone might turn up looking for you," Mion put in before he could reply with his usual excuse, "If someone was looking for you, I'm sure they would have come looking for you by now."

Daisuke sighed as he had to admit that the green-haired girl did have a point. It had almost been a month since Ichirō and Aiko had filed their police report and so far, there had been no replies. No one had turned up looking for him and he had to admit that he felt somewhat deflated. He had initially anticipated that someone he knew would have come looking for him, but as time passed and no one came, he started to give up hope and he could not help but wonder why no one had sought to claim him. Just who was he and where did he come from? He had originally thought that perhaps he could have been someone who had run away from home and had lost his memory upon falling into the Onigafuchi Swamp. However, judging from the state of his old clothes, if he had run away from home, then he had to have ran away quite some time ago as when he had been found, his clothes had been old, tattered, dirty and he had been severely malnourished and stank of BO.

"If I really did run away from home, then I must've been on the run for quite a while before hand," he thought to himself.

Thankfully, he was now a lot healthier. He was no longer malnourished and at first, before leaving the Irie Clinic, he had taken a bath, but while staying with Keiichi and his parents, he frequently used their shower in an effort to battle his double-crown.

Anyway, as he thought about his past and why no one had turned up to claim him, a horrible thought suddenly entered his mind as he could not help but wonder, if he did indeed run away from home, were his parents glad that he was gone? Was it possible that they just did not care what happened to him now that he was out of their hair? Those thoughts buzzed about his mind and he could not wonder that if true, what was it that he could have done that would cause his parents to hate him. Could he have been the result of an unwanted pregnancy or was it that he just did not live up to his parents' standards and they decided that they would be better off without him or could it be that he had been so disruptive and undisciplined that his parents had gotten rid of him? So many questions appeared in his mind and he had no answers. Heck, he did not even know if they were warranted or not. However, the fact that no one had turned up to claim him meant that he could not help but fear that either he had run away from home and his parents had abandoned him or even worse, his parents had kicked him out and left him to fend for himself.

"Hey, Dai-chan, are you alright?" Mion's voice came, bringing him back to reality and he saw her staring at him with a concerned look on her face, "You're spacing out."

"Oh, gomen," Daisuke apologised as he shook his head, dispelling his thoughts for now, "So you all want me to join your little club, eh?"

Rika walked up beside him and tugged on his shirt and gave him a similar look that Rena had given him.

"Mī…" she said in a pleading tone and then, suddenly, as if by magic, her expression transformed into a rather cheerfully carefree grin, "Nipā~."

"Heh, nipā~," he said with a nod as he came to his decision after thinking it over, "Alright then, if you all insist and since no one's turned up to answer to that police report, I don't see why not. I'm in."

The Game Club members' faces all lit up in excitement as their newest friend had just accepted their invitation to join, though studying Mion's expression, Daisuke caught a gleam of arrogant smugness in her eyes and knew that she was probably happy with the prospect of having new meat to target. He had observed the members well enough to know what each one was like. Mion was the biggest winner and chose the games since she was the leader and normally won through cheating, though given the club's rules in that members had to do whatever it took to win, it technically was not cheating. From what he had heard from Keiichi, Mion had taken great delight in putting him through the ringer when he first joined.

"You know, Kei," he said as he turned to focus on Keiichi, "Since you mainly hang around with girls, you could do with more boyfriends."

Keiichi's eyes widened in shock at hearing this and so did Daisuke's, when he realised just what he had said and the girls were also stunned for a moment, but then Mion suddenly burst into laughter once she realised that Daisuke's comment had come out the wrong way and then the other girls all followed suit and Keiichi groaned as he turned to glare at Daisuke.

"Gomen, gomen," Daisuke said rather hurriedly in a panicked tone, "W-w-what I m-meant to s-say was, you really could really do with more friends who are guys."

Keiichi's expression became unreadable for a few seconds as he stared at Daisuke before a smile materialised on his face and the he nodded, accepting his friend's apology and even let out a chuckle of his own since he had to admit that Daisuke was right; he was lacking male friends.

"Why's that so funny?" Satoko asked curiously as she fought to regain her composure, sniggering all the while.

"You'll know when you're older, Satoko," Shion told the blonde-haired pre-teen.

"Anyway, let's see what game we'll be playing today," Mion said as she walked over to her locker and after opening it, she shifted through the numerous items that she had stored there.

Daisuke had seen Mion do this countless times already and he honestly could not understand how the green-haired girl managed to fit so many things in such a small amount of space and even more bizarre, he just could not understand how Mion was able to open it without everything spilling out onto the floor. He remembered that Mion had once told him to open her locker for her since she had to do something important as the Class President and when he opened the locker, everything had come spilling out and he just could not seem to fit everything back in, even with the others helping him. It had taken Mion herself; after she had returned to get everything back in correctly without everything falling out again. When he asked Mion how she did it, she explained that there was a certain knack to it, but did not go into detail as to what that "certain knack" was.

"Okay, let's see," Mion said excitedly as she fished around her locker, "What sort of game would have Dai-chan at a great disadvantage?"

"Don't worry, she was like this with me as well," Keiichi whispered to his friend assuredly after hearing Mion's statement.

Daisuke just nodded since he had already seen how Mion had done things.

"Ah, here we go, how about a game of Old Geezer?" Mion said as she pulled out a rather old and tattered deck of cards, "We haven't played this in a while. Not since before Dai-chan came here."

As she said the last part, she turned and shot Daisuke a really wicked and arrogant grin.

"So that's your game, eh, Mion-san?" Daisuke thought as he studied the rather arrogant smirk on the green-haired girl's face as he realised what Mion was doing.

Basically, since Daisuke had seen the club play other games, he had already gotten a feel on what to do and could easily come up with a game plan on how to handle the situation and so, with this in mind, Mion had obviously chosen a game that he had not seen before and therefore would have a more difficult time in forming a game plan. However, Keiichi had told him about this game, which was similar to the game, Old Maid and Keiichi had also told him that the cards were so old and tattered that the girls had practically memorised them through the wear and tear markings on the back.

In fact, it was the first game Keiichi had ever played upon joining the club and it had taken him a long time before he managed to memorise the cards despite realising beforehand that the wear and tear gave the others an unfair advantage. However, he did manage to use that to his advantage when he memorised the markings on the back of the Two of Diamonds card and then mimicked those markings, causing Mion to slip up, but because he had been in last place, he still had to go through a Punishment Game in which Mion had drawn on his face. However, Mion did admire Keiichi for his craftiness when he had created that new marking that had caused her to mistake Keiichi's card for the Two of Diamonds.

However, Daisuke just smirked as he already had an ace up his sleeve. Well, actually, he had been intending on giving it to Keiichi for the next time they played Old Geezer since he had not been expecting to join the Gaming Club. He had hoped that it would at least make the game more fair and take away Mion's advantage.

"Hold it right there, Mion-san," Daisuke said with a smug look on his face, "I know what you're planning. You're planning on having me play a game that I haven't seen so I won't be able to have an idea on what to do."

"My, my, you catch on quickly, Dai-chan," Mion said as she raised an eyebrow, looking somewhat impressed that Daisuke figured her out, but her tone lost none of its smugness.

"And no doubt, those cards are so old that the wear and tear markings on the back tell you exactly which cards are which," Daisuke went on, not at all affected by Mion's boastful attitude, "And since I'm new, I won't know which cards are which."

"Once again, you're right, Dai-chan, but you'll learn as time goes on," Mion said dismissively with a wave of her hand.

"Now hold on, I'm not done yet," Daisuke said as his tone took on a smugness of its own.

"Oh, and what else do you have to contribute before we begin?" Mion asked intently as Daisuke reached into his left trouser pocket and pulled out a deck of cards that looked brand new.

"This, a new deck," Daisuke replied smugly as he showed off the deck to the others and showed that they had no distinctive markings whatsoever and then Daisuke focused his attention on Mion and shot her a challenging look, "So how about it, Mion-san?"

Mion's eyes widened in surprise as she noticed the new deck and realised that Daisuke had practically one-upped her. A new deck meant that there were no markings and therefore, senior club members would not have the advantage and Mion knew that there was no possible way that she could cheat with this deck.

"You conniving bastard, Dai-chan," Mion thought as she continued to stare at the new deck and then burst into a smile, as she had to admit that Daisuke was already acting like a club member should since the rules stated that one must do whatever it took to win and by taking away the others' advantage, he was reducing their chances of winning so that he would have a fairer shot and with that in mind, Mion knew that she could not complain since it would label her a hypocrite.

"Of course, if you're too scared of losing with this new deck, I understand," Daisuke goaded confidently, knowing that Mion would accept regardless since she would not tolerate an assault on her pride.

"Fine, you're on, Dai-chan," Mion said, despite knowing that she was undoubtedly walking straight into Daisuke's trap, but at the same time, she did not care, "I never back down from a challenge."

"Now we'll see just how good you really are," Daisuke said tauntingly as Mion growled.

"My, my, onē, now you have to play by the rules," Shion added teasingly, "No more cheating for you."

"Shut up," Mion grumbled with a huff, not happy at having her advantage taken away from her, but at the same time, she did admire Daisuke for his craftiness.

* * *

Later, everyone aside from Mion and Daisuke had all been eliminated and it was Mion's turn to pick. She knew that she had to think this over carefully since if she picked the right card, she would win, but if she picked the wrong card that she knew that it was game over for her since Daisuke would pick her other card when his turn came round.

After a tense few minutes, Mion reached out and pretty much snatched the card on Daisuke's right out of his hand and looked at it.

"Ha, I win!" she proclaimed before she studied the card completely, but after looking at the card and realising that the card she had was not the one she wanted, her face blanched as she realised that she lost.

Daisuke, upon noticing her change in reaction, calmly reached out and took the card that Mion already had in her hand before she made her choice on which of his cards to take and upon looking at the card, just to be sure that it was the right one, he threw the cards on the table and shot Mion a rather smug and arrogant look, similar to the one he had constantly seen on her face whenever she won.

"Well, Mion-san, read 'em 'n' weep," he said rather smugly, "I'm out. Looks like I win."

Mion just stared at the cards on the table with wide eyes of shock and disbelief, unable to believe that she had lost, and to a newbie.

"Beaten by a newbie," she finally crocked with disbelief evident in her tone.

"Gomen, Mī-chan, but this newbie just proved his worth," Rena said in admiration as she stared dreamingly at Daisuke as she had to admit that she had grown to admire him ever since he had accompanied her to the junkyard to go treasure hunting with her and had taken her home after she had fallen asleep next to him.

"And now, as per the rules, you must suffer a Punishment Game," Daisuke said excitedly, causing Mion to glare at him as she came out of her stupor.

"Okay then, Dai-chan, what have I to do?" she said, not all that happy that she had lost to the new guy and on the first day of him joining the club at that; it was indeed a rather humiliating experience.

Daisuke just chuckled as he pondered on how to punish the green-haired girl. However, like Keiichi, he knew that there was a line that must not be crossed and despite several fantasies rushing through his head with Mion in rather awkward and compromising positions, he knew that to implement them would certainly cross the line and Mion may end up becoming a psychologically emotional wreck in the end. Like Keiichi before him, Daisuke knew that his Punishment Game had to be proportionate to the Punishment Games that the girls themselves dished out. After all, despite Mion's attitude leading one to believe so, Daisuke knew that her Punishment Games were not mean-spirited and were just for fun. Mion may come across as mean, but she really did not want to seriously humiliate the losers to the point of suffering emotional breakdowns. The purpose of the Punishment Games were to motivate the losers into trying harder to win come the next game.

"Well, I'm waiting," Mion said impatiently as she stood up and tapped her foot on the floor.

"Well, Mion-san, you are a tomboy, aren't you?" Daisuke said as he looked up at Mion as she glared down at him.

"Uh huh, so?" Mion said simply, not really understanding what he was getting at.

"And the annual Watanagashi Festival's coming up this Sunday, isn't it?" Daisuke went on as Mion growled.

"Just get to the point!" she snapped, unable to take any more suspense, "What does me being a tomboy have to do with the Watanagashi Festival?"

Daisuke then smirked and folded his arms across his chest and placed his right leg on top of his left.

"Well, Mion-san, since you're a tomboy, you will go to Okinomiya, to that clothing store we were in the other day and buy the most beautiful and extravagant dress in the store and then, my dear, you will wear that dress to the Watanagashi Festival come Sunday."

"What?" Mion spluttered in pure disbelief.

"As I said, you'll be attending the Watanagashi Festival wearing a rather glamorous looking dress," Daisuke said as he repeated his instructions, though using different words, "As a tomboy, I'm sure that you don't do dresses. So, as your punishment, you'll be wearing one to the Watanagashi Festival this year. I'm sure to you; it's the equivalent of forcing a guy to dress up in girls' clothing."

Mion huffed as she grumbled under her breath, knowing that Daisuke was right. As a tomboy, she really hated wearing dresses and being forced to wear one did make her feel as if she was a guy that had been forced to wear girls' clothing. In fact, it was just as humiliating as the Punishment Games she had come up with on a regular basis

"Haū~, Mī-chan in a dress, kawaī, omochikaerī~," Rena said as she envisioned Mion in a dress and fantasised how beautifully cute she looked.

"Like I said before, onē, Punishment Games are fun," Shion laughed, clearly enjoying her sister's predicament, "Unless of course, you happen to be on the receiving end."

"Oh, shut up, Shion," Mion grumbled as she resisted the urge to slug her sister over the head.

"Mion in a dress," Keiichi said, closing his eyes as he envisioned Mion wearing a rather beautiful and revealing dress, "Dai, I freakin' love you, man!"

Mion just groaned at Keiichi's antics.

"Pervert," she grumbled.

"Well, Mion-san, you're also a pervert for bringing up such a vulgar topic when Daisuke-san first came here," Satoko pointed out, apparently having overheard her, "What was it? Something about something standing at attention or something like that?"

"You'll know what it is when you're older, Satoko," Shion said, even as Mion groaned.

"You just had to go and bring that up," the green-haired girl moaned as she remembered that time and also remembered how Rena had lashed out and given her a huge welt across her left cheek, "I'm just glad that I avoided a broken jaw. That Rena such packs quite a punch."

"Well, you were being insensitive and inconsiderate, Mī-chan," Rena said, speaking up in her own defence, "There were children present and they were too young to know about that sort of thing."

"Yeah, yeah, gomen, I totally forgot about that," Mion grumbled with a huff.

Daisuke did of course know about the Watanagashi Festival. He had learned about it from Rena during her tour of the village. She had explained that the Watanagashi Festival was held every year on the third Sunday in the month of June. Basically what happened was that the villagers would contribute their old coats, furniture and anything else that had cotton and they would be gutted for their cotton and then the cotton would be sown together, making a large futon and on the night of the third Sunday of June, the priest or miko would perform a dance with a specialised hoe and then use the hoe to cut and gouge out the cotton and then the villagers would each take a small piece of cotton and then set it adrift in the river and it was believed that in doing so, the villagers were casting off their sins. It was a ritual intended to praise the local Shrine God, Oyashiro-sama and thank him for watching over the village.

However, Rena had explained that in the beginning the Watanagashi Festival had used human sacrifices instead of an oversized futon. Originally the intended sacrifice was strapped down to a table and the "dance" back then had been a procedural torture session that ended with the sacrifice's stomach and intestines being ripped out by the specialised hoe and afterwards the corpse and the severed intestines were thrown into the river and that was meant to symbolise the "drifting away" of the people's sins. However, thankfully in these modern times, the original Watanagashi Ritual had come to be seen as too cruel and barbaric and so they adopted the use of cotton based on the alternative meaning for the word, "wata", which could mean either, intestines or cotton.

He also learned that Rika was the local miko, being part of the Furude Family, which was one of the Three Great Houses along with the Sonozaki and Kimiyoshi Families. That had surprised him; that Rika, who was only eleven-years-old, was part of the three main families that were in charge of the village. He could not help but wonder what happened to her parents, since it was fairly obvious that they were both dead; either that or they were away, but Daisuke doubted that very much since if they had been away, then they would have returned by now. Anyway, the Furude Family were basically the spiritual and religious leaders of the village and their job was to see to the religious side of things. Whenever there was a religious ceremony in the village, a Furude was almost certainly guaranteed to be the one who was conducting it. Since Rika was a Furude and the only Furude in the village sans Hanyū, she had a seat on the Village Council, but very rarely did she attend due to her age and it was also due to her age, plus the fact that everyone in the village seemed to revere her that the rest of the Village Council were prepared to turn a blind eye to her absence.

* * *

Later, Daisuke was walking back to the Maebara Mansion with Keiichi, Rena and Mion. The sun had already started to set and the hue in the sky had turned a bright orange colour and the outside temperature had started to cool down. Nonetheless, Mion was grumbling to herself, still not pleased at having lost to Daisuke. What angered her the most was that not only did she lose to the newest member of the club on the first day of his participation, which was really humiliating in itself; it was also the fact that he had totally ruined her plan with that new deck of his and to make matters worse, he had goaded her into accepting, knowing full well that her pride would not let her refuse despite knowing that it was a trap and now she had to do something that; to her was far worse than being forced to wear any of her Punishment Game outfits; she had to wear a really beautiful dress to the Watanagashi Festival and as a tomboy, she had always told herself that she did not do dresses. They were too girly and high society for her tastes.

However, she did have to admire Daisuke at the same time. Already he was thinking like a club member and so, she could not fault him since he technically did not break the rules that she had set down. Do whatever it takes to win, that was the rule that Daisuke had followed when he offered that new deck. Doing whatever it took to win meant one had to strive for advantages over the competition, even if the advantage in question was unfair and also, if the competition had an advantage over you, then you had to strive to take that advantage away from them, which was what Daisuke had done. He did not break the rules and Mion knew that if she was to complain, then she would end up coming off as a hypocrite. It was not fair, but that was the point. Mion only found things fair whenever they were going her way, but the moment someone else gained the upper hand, it was no longer fair to her, but she could live with that since it was in the spirit of fun.

"An eye for an eye, I suppose," she thought with a sigh.

So despite not being too happy that she had lost, she could honestly say that she most definitely respected Daisuke for his devious thinking. He had taken away her advantage and had beaten her fair and square. Sure, the new deck did not give him an advantage since he was as blind as everyone else, but it definitely evened the playing field, which had dramatically reduced the others' odds of winning.

"Hey, Mion-san, do you mind if I ask you a question?" Daisuke's voice came, bringing her back to reality.

"Huh, what?" she said as she looked around and saw that they had reached the watermill, which was also her "drop-off point".

She also saw Daisuke staring at her with an inquiring look and Keiichi and Rena were further along the path.

"Hey, Dai, what's the hold up?" Keiichi called out upon noticing that Daisuke was no longer with them.

"Oh, you and Rena-san go on ahead, I'd like to speak with Mion-san alone, if that's alright!" Daisuke called back with a wave.

Keiichi and Rena both looked surprised for a moment and Mion's eyes widened as she wondered just what it was that Daisuke wanted to talk to her about.

"It won't take all that long… I hope," Daisuke went on, sounding unsure about the last part.

"Well, okay!" Keiichi called back as he returned Daisuke's wave and Rena nodded.

Once both of them turned and left, Daisuke waited till he was sure that they were both out of earshot before his look turned serious and Mion knew that he was not intending to taunt her further on her Punishment Game.

"Okay, Dai-chan, what's up?" she asked as she leaned against the wall of the house by the watermill and folded her arms, "What do you want to ask me about?"

"Hōjō Satoshi," Daisuke said simply and he noticed Mion's eyes widening in shock as she tensed up.

"Rena-san told me," Daisuke went on as he explained himself, "That day that she gave me a tour of the village on my first day of school, I asked her about him since I overheard you and Shion-san mentioning him while you were arguing."

Mion looked unsure for a moment, but then she nodded, accepting Daisuke's explanation.

"How much do you know?" Mion inquired as she gave Daisuke an inquiring look of her own.

"I know that I'm missing a few things, but Rena-san told me about the dam project and how Satoshi-san and Satoko-san's gifu was the leader of the pro-dam movement and how after the project was abandoned how Hōjō-san and his whole family were persecuted," Daisuke explained with obvious bitterness entered his voice as he mentioned the last part, "I also know that Hōjō-san and his tsuma both fell to their deaths four years ago and that Satoshi-san and Satoko-san went to live with their oji and oba who were both abusive to them and that you founded your little club as a means of trying to help them. I also know that Satoshi-san disappeared after his oba-san was murdered two years ago and that Shion-san had fallen in love with him."

Mion nodded with a sigh.

"Hai, that's right," she said in a rather deflated tone, "Everything you just said is true."

"Of course, if you'd rather not talk about it, that's cool," Daisuke said, repeating what he had told Rena, "I'm just curious, but if you'd rather not talk about it, fair enough."

Mion sighed as she moved her back off the wall.

"Okay, Rena told you her side, so I might as well tell you mine," she said as she shot him a serious "don't interrupt me" look, causing him to nod, "Yes, the government were planning on building a dam near here and had it gone ahead, this whole area would have been submerged underwater. However, most of the villagers weren't too happy about that and resisted."

"Yes, Rena-san told me as much," Daisuke said, letting Mion know that he knew this already, "But there was a group that supported the dam and Hōjō-san, Satoshi-san and Satoko-san's gifu was their leader, wasn't he?"

Mion nodded.

"Yes, that's correct," she confirmed simply, "Hōjō-san and the group wanted to leave the village and blamed the anti-dam movement; bā-chan in particular of interfering. The Kokudokōtsūshō sent round a representative to try and persuade the anti-dam movement to reconsider, but they were not having any of it and to make matters worse, Hōjō-san and the pro-dam supporters turned up as well and Hōjō-san actually had the balls to stand up to bā-chan and tell her exactly what he thought of her to her face and bā-chan responded by telling him to "watch his back" as it was. Anyway, Hōjō-san continued his tirade and when someone got between him and bā-chan and Hōjō-san lashed out at him and the meeting had erupted into violence. That was six years ago."

"However, the dam project was abandoned, wasn't it?" Daisuke said and Mion nodded.

"Yes, that's correct and it was abandoned because someone had kidnapped Inukai-daijin's mago," Mion went on as Daisuke's eyes widened as he realised that this was something Rena had not told him, "Inukai-daijin was the Daijin for the Kokudokōtsūshō back then and as such, was the one who that the overall authority to abandon the dam project."

"That's something Rena-san didn't tell me," Daisuke said as his eyes narrowed, unable to believe that someone would go as far as to kidnap someone's relative just to force them into complying with them, "Who was it?"

"Don't know," Mion said with a sigh, "Anyone outside the Hinamizawa Go-Ikenban would tell you that we Sonozakis were responsible, but that's not true. Sure, we Sonozakis were among the most open among the anti-dam movement, but we never kidnapped Inukai-daijin's mago. However, upon hearing of the kidnapping and that we were suspects, bā-chan decided to go along with it and fool everyone into believing that we were responsible."

Daisuke opened his mouth, but Mion noticed and knowing what he was going to say, she shot him a look that silenced him immediately.

"Bā-chan's getting old and doesn't have much longer to live," Mion explained with another sigh, "She's really frail and weak and believed that by taking credit for the kidnapping, that it would make others fear the Sonozakis. Basically, she wanted to use that to made our family look tougher than we actually were in order to intimidate our enemies and as a Yakuza Family, we do have a lot of enemies, including rival Yakuza Families and a group of Triads from China to name a few."

Daisuke nodded in understanding.

"Of course, with a policy like that, it's bound to bite you in the ass sooner or later," he said simply.

"It hasn't yet, though I do have to agree with you there," Mion replied, admitting that Daisuke did have a point, "Anyway, the ransom was paid and Inukai-san was released and the dam project was abandoned. However, either due to a breakdown in communications or the fact that the construction site had to be cleaned up, the Dam Construction Manager and his team stayed behind."

"And afterwards, the pro-dam supporters were persecuted, weren't they?" Daisuke said and Mion nodded.

"Hai, they were seen as traitors, especially Hōjō-san and his tsuma," Mion confirmed as she trembled just remembering it, "However, it wasn't just them; it was their kodomo as well. That was something that bā-chan, as hard as it is to believe, had not intended. Satoshi and Satoko were persecuted along with their ryōshin despite having nothing to do with the dam."

Daisuke could not help but notice the rising anger in Mion's voice as she spoke and her eyes were fixed on the ground as they emitted a rather hateful glare. It was just the same as Rena. She had a similar feeling.

"I'll admit that I was part of the anti-dam movement and that during the "Dam War", I was one of those who attacked the Construction Manager on a daily basis and I was angry at Hōjō-san for what he said to bā-chan, but Satoshi and Satoko are not their gifu. Heck they're not even biologically related to him."

Daisuke blinked upon hearing this.

"Despite my opposition to the dam, I was smart enough to know that neither Satoshi nor Satoko had anything to do with it," Mion said upon noticing his reaction.

"You're smarter than most," Daisuke said in acknowledgement, "And braver to. Usually hanging around with someone that has a stigma attached to them gets you branded with the same stigma."

"I don't care!" Mion snapped, causing Daisuke to jump in surprise as she looked up at him, but then calmed down and sighed, "Anyway, the year after the dam was cancelled, during the Watanagashi Festival, the Dam Construction Manager, like I said before, either through a breakdown in communications or he simply stayed to clean up, but anyway; he apparently went into a deranged state and attacked six of his colleagues, who killed him in self-defence."

"Huh?" Daisuke said in confusion as he believed that Mion was getting off-topic, "What's that got to do what Satoshi-san?"

"Just listen, I'm getting to that," Mion said, sounding a bit agitated, "I know it seems unrelated, but believe me, as I go on, you'll discover that this ties in with Satoshi's disappearance."

"Gomen, if it's too painful for you…" Daisuke started to say.

"No, it's okay," Mion said, interrupting him, "Rena told you her version, so I might as well tell you mine."

Daisuke just nodded, signalling her to continue.

"Anyway, the Dam Construction Manager was killed after he attacked six of his colleagues, apparently being in a deranged state," Mion went on, "Afterwards, they then cut up his body into six different pieces and divided the pieces among them. I believe that their leader was an ex-convict who was scared of going back to prison, so he forced the others into complying with him. The others, from what I heard wanted to turn themselves in, but their leader was not having any of it. However, one of the men went to a nearby hospital to get his wounds seen to and his piece of the body was discovered and he then turned himself in and four of the others were rounded up after they turned themselves in. However, the leader was never caught and remains at large, even to this day and the thing is, no one's seen or heard from him since."

"Maybe he saw that his plan was falling apart and fled the country," Daisuke suggested as he pondered probable scenarios.

"Probable, but there's no evidence to suggest that," Mion replied with a sigh, though Daisuke got the distinct impression that she was not being truthful with him, but decided that she had her reasons for lying and let it slide, "Anyway, I'm sure Rena's told you about Hōjō-san and his tsuma falling to their deaths, right?"

"Uh huh," Daisuke said as he suddenly started to realise that the Dam Construction Manager's death and Satoshi were somehow connected.

"Well, that incident happened during the Watanagashi Festival, one year after the Dam Construction Manager was murdered and one of the murderers disappeared," Mion stated with a nod as she confirmed Daisuke's realisation, "During the Watanagashi of 1980, the villagers were celebrating what they perceived as their victory over the dam and the Hōjōs, knowing that they were not welcome were in the nearby Shirakawa Park."

"Yeah, and they leaned too far over the edge of an observation balcony and the guardrail gave way, possibly due to a lack of maintenance," Daisuke added and Mion nodded in confirmation.

"That's right, they both fell into a river below," she said as she continued to explain, "Hōjō-san's body was found, but his tsuma's body disappeared. It was never found and still hasn't been found even to this day."

"Rivers eventually flow out into the sea, so the chances are that her body was swept out to sea," Daisuke summarised as he thought about it, "Either that or her body ended up in an area of the river that's difficult to get to."

"I also find that plausible," Mion admitted with a nod, but then her expression became rather downcast, "And afterwards, Satoshi and Satoko when to live with Hōjō-san's otōto, Hōjō Teppei and his tsuma, Hōjō Tamae. However, Teppei and Tamae weren't too happy at taking in the kodomo of the village traitors and so they abused them frequently, though as I understand it, Teppei was having an affair behind his tsuma's back and Tamae suspected her otto's infidelity and regularly took it out on Satoshi and Satoko."

Daisuke listened intently since Rena had not told him this, but then again, Rena had not been in the village during the Dam War and was not as resourceful as Mion, so he could understand that Rena perhaps did not know everything about the situation. Mion by contrast was the heiress to a very wealthy family with ties to the Yakuza and had been present in the village during the Dam War and therefore, it was only natural that she had more knowledge than Rena did.

"And to help them out, you established the school as a safe zone of sorts and set up the club, is that right?" Daisuke asked and Mion nodded.

"Yep, that's right," she confirmed and then let out a rather depressed sigh, "Bā-chan never intended the hatred of the Hōjōs to extend to their kodomo. Once you get by bā-chan's cold exterior, you'll find that she's actually quite nice. However, the Sonozaki Family and by extension, the Three Great Houses are all very strict when it comes to tradition and as such, bā-chan only appears to be cold and cruel for the sake of appearances. You see, the Sonozaki Family are very strict and bā-chan can't afford to look weak. Letting one's feelings get in the way of what needs to be done is seen as weakness and unfortunately, there are those within the Sonozaki Family that aren't happy with bā-chan being the Head and would likely seek to undermine her leadership at the first available opportunity."

"I take it, this has something to do why she told you not to do anything," Daisuke said as he recalled Rena telling him that Oryō had told Mion not to interfere with the villagers' treatment of the Hōjōs.

Mion just nodded as Daisuke noticed tears starting to well up in her eyes.

"If bā-chan had her way, she would have cleared it all up back then," she went on as she wiped her eyes with her hand, "Unfortunately with the feelings of the villagers so strong, to have done so would have played right into the hands of those who are seeking to undermine her, since as the leader of the village, everyone was expecting her to feel the same way and so, she went with the flow and instructed me to leave them alone, not wanting her enemies to use me as a means of usurping her leadership and so, I decided to exercise what little power I had and established the school at a safe zone in which no one was allowed to bring their resentment of Satoshi and Satoko and to keep them away from Teppei and Tamae for as long as possible, I established the club."

Daisuke nodded, remembering that Rena told him that.

"However, before the Hōjōs died, they sought shelter and the Head of the Furude Family, Rika-chan's chichi had agreed to shelter them from the villagers," Mion went on to explain and Daisuke's eyes widened as he realised that there were more, "As far as the Dam War went, Furude-san was rather passive about the whole affair and took a neutral stance. Unfortunately, this angered some of the villagers, who had a black and white view of the whole dam affair. In other words, you either supported it or you didn't and despite telling the villagers of his neutrality, they refused to accept it and since he sheltered the Hōjōs, they believed that he supported the dam. This was excruciatingly infuriating since as the religious leaders of the village and caretakers of the Furude Shrine, the Furude Shrine and the local deity, Oyashiro-sama were seen at the main symbols for the anti-dam movement. To have the head priest supporting the dam… such a thing was considered an insult."

"Something happened to him, didn't it?" Daisuke said as he summed up where Mion was going with what she was saying.

"Yes, you're right," Mion confirmed with a nod, "On the day of the Watanagashi Festival in 1981, a year after Hōjō-san and his tsuma died, at a Go-Ikenban Meeting, Furude-san collapsed and was admitted to hospital and at first, it seemed as if he would recover, but then, all of a sudden, he suffered a relapse and died."

"What, he died, what happened to him?" Daisuke asked, unable to believe what he was hearing.

"Officially, it was said to be heart trouble," Mion stated, though it was clear that she was not all that convinced, "Though, I think that he may have been poisoned, but then his tsuma, Rika-chan's haha apparently committed suicide after jumping into the Onigafuchi Swamp."

Daisuke could not help but shudder as he remembered that he had ended up in the Onigafuchi Swamp and had somehow managed to free himself, though he honestly did not know how he did that. However, thinking over everything Mion had said, he suddenly realised a pattern emerging and then remembering what Rena told him about Satoshi and how he disappeared not long after his aunt was murdered, suddenly, everything Mion told him started to make sense and he understood why she had told him about the Dam Construction Manager as well as Rika's parents despite them seeming to be unrelated topics.

"All those deaths and disappearances; they all happened on the day of the Watanagashi Festival," he said as realisation washed over him, "Satoshi's oba was murdered on the day of the Festival two years ago and then Satoshi-san disappeared."

"Yes, that's right," Mion said with a sad sigh, "After his tsuma was murdered, Teppei, fearing that he was going to disappear fled to Okinomiya to live with his aijin, a woman by the name of Ritsuko and Satoko then went to live with Rika-chan, who was living alone, though legally Kimiyoshi-ojīchan's her guardian and despite Satoko being a Hōjō, he let her live with Rika-chan because Rika-chan insisted. She was like me, she knew that Satoko and Satoshi had nothing to do with the dam and so joined the club to help out, plus Satoko's her shinyu."

Daisuke nodded as he had seen how close Rika and Satoko had been, even during club activities. If any club activities involved pairings or teams, Satoko and Rika were almost certainly together and sometimes Hanyū as well.

"Anyway, all those murders and disappearances were all afflicted to Oyashiro-sama's Curse," Mion said as she decided to tell him more.

"What, so everyone thinks that Oyashiro-sama did it?" Daisuke asked in shock, unable to believe what he had just heard, "Are they serious?"

"That's what was initially thought," Mion said as she levelled Daisuke a stare that told him that she was not messing around, "However, in truth, it was just a series of contrived coincidences. However, the fact that all the victims were either supporters of the dam project or were associated with dam supporters in some way, it's easy to see how people would initially come to the conclusion that Oyashiro-sama was punishing them."

Daisuke nodded as he had to admit that Mion did have a point and being round the village, he knew that quite a few of them were rather superstitious and believed in the supernatural. He had heard of Oyashiro-sama from Rena and from what he had learned from Rena, Oyashiro-sama was a very vicious, cruel and vengeful deity who watched over the village and punished anyone who angered him, apparently by cursing them with madness and insanity. It was Oyashiro-sama's teachings that the villagers adhered to and that by violating those teachings, they would be cursed. The rules were as followed, No one was to talk about Oyashiro-sama, no one was to let outsiders into the village, no one was to leave the village or even think about leaving the village, no one was to defy Oyashiro-sama in any way and the dam project was a great example of that, no one aside from the members of the Furude Family, Oyashiro-sama's supposed chosen guardians were allowed to enter the Saiguden without permission from the Head Priest or Head Miko and judging from what happened to Rika's parents, Daisuke figured that many people had come to believe that the Furude Family were not exempt from this curse.

In any case, Daisuke had also learned that Rena was a devout believer in Oyashiro-sama. In fact, the way Rena spoke about him had crept him out and so he had changed the subject. When Rena had spoken of Oyashiro-sama, her expression had become rather emotionless and her tone matched her look and from the looks of it, it seemed as if Rena was actually frightened of Oyashiro-sama; that she had some experience in the past and had somehow afflicted her experience to be the work of Oyashiro-sama, but he did not pry since Rena had freaked him out back then and he feared that prying would set her off and so he changed the subject by reminding her they were not supposed to speak of him and once he changed the subject, Rena had come back to her old self again.

"And those who don't believe in the curse came to suspect the Sonozaki Family," Mion went on, bringing him back to reality, "I can name one, Ōishi Kuraudo, an old police detective who's now retired."

"And let me guess, like with the kidnapping of Inukai-daijin's mago, your sobo decided to take credit for it in a bid to intimidate everyone; even though they really had nothing to do with it," Daisuke said, knowing where this was going and Mion nodded in confirmation.

"And where does your shimai come in?" Daisuke asked as he also remembered Rena telling him that Shion had fallen in love with Satoshi, "I also heard that Shion-san fell in love with him."

Mion nodded with a sigh as she remembered the incident in which Shion had confronted their grandmother over her relationship with Satoshi and how she had to intervene and side with Oryō when she saw that the situation was close to getting out of hand and Shion was on the verge of physically lashing out at their grandmother. It had ended up with Shion having three of her fingernails ripped out and Shion had freaked out after ripping out the first one and two henchmen had to rip out the other two because Shion had become overwhelmed with fright and afterwards, after Satoshi had disappeared, Shion had ended up almost strangling her to death after she mentioned an off-hand comment about Satoshi.

"That's something you're going to have to ask Shion about," she said after a while of remaining silent and Daisuke knew that she must have been recalling painful memories as tears started to well up in her eyes again, "You see, as you know, Shion and bā-chan don't get along that much and her relationship with Satoshi only complicated matters."

Daisuke nodded as he did know that Oryō and Shion did not see eye to eye, but Oryō did manage to put up with her, probably because she was her granddaughter. In any case, it was clear that Mion did not want to talk about this anymore and so, he decided that it was time to take his leave, despite having more questions. He knew it would be insensitive if he started to pry and force answers out of Mion and so, like with Rena when she had gotten into a similar state, he dropped the subject.

"Okay, arigatō, Mion-san," he said with a nod of satisfaction, "I'll admit, I do have more questions, but since you look as if you don't want to talk about this anymore, I'll drop it."

Mion just nodded in acceptance, glad that Daisuke was not wanting to pry any longer.

"If only I could have done something more," Daisuke heard Mion whisper to herself as he started to walk away, "Then maybe I could've prevented his disappearance."

Daisuke sighed and shook his head, feeling really guilty at having Mion dig up painful memories; memories that she had probably worked hard to bury in her mind. He really hated it when people were sad and depressed and he equally hated it when it was him that was the cause of it. However, he had been curious and Mion had offered to tell him what she knew… or at least some of what she knew.

However, while listening to Mion, he could not get the feeling that there were some things that she had not been completely honest about. He did get the distinct feeling that she had been either lying or withholding information from him and that did slightly anger him a bit, but he decided that Mion must have a perfectly good reason for lying and withholding information. He was her friend and naturally, he was not pleased that she was keeping secrets and lying to cover them up, but he knew that everyone had their share of secrets that they did not want to tell even the people closest to them. He probably had his own share of secrets that he would not want anyone to know about, even if those people were his closest friends, but since he was an amnesic, even he did not know what they were.

* * *

Not far away, unbeknownst to both Mion and Daisuke, a sinister figure clad in a black trenchcoat and fedora watched the scene unfold until Daisuke had started to walk away. However, his gaze followed Daisuke as he continued down the path towards the Maebara Mansion. The figure stood behind a tree, using it as cover so as not to be seen and he was lucky that Mion failed to notice him as she started to make her own way home, but the figure paid her no heed. He was solely fixated on Daisuke.

"So this is what you've been up to, Shishigō," the figure mused to himself, "Such behaviour is not befitting of a soldier. When I finally reclaim you, I'll have to see to it that you are properly disciplined."

He then paused as he looked around to see if there was anyone else on the pathway and seeing that the coast was clear he started walking after Daisuke, maintaining a safe distance so as not to alert him.

"Watanagashi," the figured went on as the edges of his mouth slowly curved upwards and formed a rather sadistically sinister smile, "Yes, the Watanagashi Festival. That'll be the perfect time to initiate my plan. Now then, Shishigō, we shall soon see whether or not being on the run for almost two years has damped your skills any."

* * *

**Sunday 17****th**** June 1984 (two days later)**

Mion huffed as she made her way through the crowds following her friends. The Gaming Club were all in the main area in which the Watanagashi Festival normally took place right by the Furude Shrine and Mion was currently wearing a rather elegant blue one-piece dress that appeared to glitter and sparkle in the light. The dress itself had two thin straps that slung over Mion's shoulders and was backless with the edge of the dress curving just above her buttocks and at the front at the top were two triangular coverings over her breasts that exposed her cleavage. The bottom of the dress was cut at either side just below her hips exposing the sides of her legs and to complete the look, she also wore a pair of matching blue high-heeled shoes. However, she still had her hair in her usual pony tail.

"I so hate you, Dai-chan," she mumbled grumpily as she noticed people staring at her since they were more familiar with her usual attire.

She did notice a few men blushing and some were even drooling as the stared and it only caused her to groan in annoyance. She still could not believe how she ended up in this predicament and the fact that she had lost to a newbie still irked her. This may not be a standard Punishment Game since normally Punishment Games revolved around wearing rather girly and frilly clothing, but as a tomboy, being forced to wear a dress was just as humiliating as a Punishment Game. It was indeed an embarrassing experience and the fact that the dress did nothing to conceal her cleavage only served to embarrass her further. However, this was the most beautiful dress Daisuke could find for her.

She remembered a few days back that the Gaming Club had visited a clothing store in Okinomiya along with Daisuke. In truth, Mion had been hunting for more Punishment Game outfits and even back then, she had been planning on inducting Daisuke into the club and had been scouting for outfits that were his size. Daisuke had tagged along and Mion had the store employees take his measurements under the guise of getting him new clothes in case he grew bored wearing his old ones, but Mion had listened in as Daisuke was being measured up and took note of each measurement as the employees voiced them out loud; just as she had instructed them to do.

However, the previous day, following on from her discussion with Daisuke about Satoshi and the Watanagashi Murders and Disappearances, Daisuke had accompanied her to the clothing store to make sure that she did not try to weasel out of her Punishment Game and purposefully chose the dress for her since he anticipated that she may chose a lesser dress.

Anyway, as for Daisuke, he had used the money he had saved up from his paper route to buy himself a new jacket, practically the same jacket as the one the Gaming Club had bought for him, only in red like his old and tattered one. However, he still held onto the blue one and wore it every second day, so as not to disappoint Mion, who had been the one who had bought him the jacket. Anyway, Daisuke stood, dressed in his red jacket.

"You look absolutely ravishing in that dress, Mion-san," he said with a rather perverted smile as he looked her up and down.

"Pervert," Mion grumbled in response.

"That's right, Mī-chan, you do look gorgeous," Rena spoke up as she also studied Mion's look as her cheeks lit up in a faint blush.

"Who would have thought it, eh?" Shion said in a boastful tone as she shot her sister a rather teasing grin, "My big, tough and boyish onē being forced to wear something befitting of her gender."

"Shut up, Shion," Mion growled as she shot her sister a glare.

"What's the matter, onē?" Shion taunted playfully as she shot her sister a rather arrogant smirk, "Upset because you can't fantasise about being a guy?"

"I'm warning you, Shion!" Mion warned as she felt her right hand ball into a fist as she felt as if she was going to punch Shion across the face.

The last thing she was in the mood for was having her sister tease her.

"Quite an unusual Punishment Game," Satoko noted as she looked Mion's dress up and down, "There's nothing that suggests it's embarrassing. In fact I've seen lots of girls wear similar dresses on TV."

"Mī's a tomboy," Rika said as she explained the situation to Satoko since it was clear that she could not understand why Mion was so embarrassed, "A tomboy is a girl who acts like a boy and wears clothes that's usually reserved for boys. Since Mī is used to wearing such boyish clothes, being forced into girls' clothing is something that she finds embarrassing. Like she says, she doesn't do dresses."

"Huh?" Satoko said, clearly not getting it.

"In other words, Mion feels like a guy being forced to wear girls' clothing," Keiichi said before going back to stare at Mion, who looked absolutely stunning, though his stare was firmly fixated on her breasts and he could not help but drool as a rather intimate fantasy entered his head.

"I'll get you for this if it's the last thing I ever do, Dai-chan," Mion grumbled upon noticing Keiichi's expression and the saliva running down the sides of his mouth and then turned her glare on Daisuke.

Daisuke just shrugged in response, causing Mion to growl.

"Au-au-au!" Hanyū suddenly said in an alarmed tone as her eyes widened in fear, causing the others to be on the alert.

"Well, well, what do we have here?" a new voice came; causing the members of the Gaming Club to glare in the direction the voice had come from.

Standing not far from them a few feet behind them, flanked by two men in police uniforms was a man with short neatly combed black hair with two short strands on either side of the centre of his forehead curving towards one another. He also had cold and cruel teal-coloured eyes that seemed to ooze with hatred, anger and contempt. He wore a pair of newly polished black shoes, a pair of dark brown trousers with black lines running both vertical and horizontal creating squares, a black leather belt running round his waist, which had a golden buckle at the front with the kanji symbols that read "Tainted Justice" carved into it. He also wore a dark grey shirt and a dark grey tie that was a slightly lighter shade than his shirt. He also had a pair of black brace straps attached to the front of his trousers that ran up and over his shoulders and met up at the centre of his back, held in place by a black leather triangle with straight ends and third brace strap ran down the centre of his back over his spine and was attached to the back of his trousers.

"Yūkimoto-san," Mion said in an emotionless tone.

Daisuke groaned as he knew who this was. This was Yūkimoto Ginjurō, a detective at the Okinomiya Keisatsusho who seemed to have it in for Mion because of her family's links to the Yakuza. He had seen him around Okinomiya a few times and he could honestly say that he had never met such a miserable sourpuss in all his life… well, since he was suffering from amnesia, he had no idea if that was true, but Yūkimoto did seem to have a massive chip on his shoulder. From what Daisuke had seen, Yūkimoto was not that well liked around Okinomiya either and he seemed to hate everyone and everything around him. Daisuke had never seen him smile, not even once, unless of course things went his way, but his smile was hardly a friendly sort of smile and his expression seemed unchangeable from that hateful scowl it always had; as if it was permanently etched onto his face and most times he had seen Yūkimoto, Yūkimoto always seemed to be harassing Mion and sometimes the other members of the Gaming Club as well. From what Daisuke could see, it was like he was trying to goad them into lashing out at him just so he could have a perfectly valid excuse to arrest them.

"My, my, Sonozaki-san," Yūkimoto said as he looked Mion up and down as he took in her dress, though everyone could detect the disgust and revulsion in his tone, "What lovely attire you're wearing this fine evening."

Mion groaned as Yūkimoto then snorted in contempt.

"Gee, you must feel rather lucky being an over privileged slut and all," he went on to goad, causing Mion to flinch as she fought the urge to lash out at the detective.

"Just what are you doing here, Yūkimoto-san?" Mion asked, still maintaining her emotionless tone.

To Shion, it was like being back down in the Sonozaki Torture Chamber that time she had discovered after escaping from St. Lucia Gakuen. It had been the day after the Watanagashi back in 1982 when Ōishi Kuraudo confronted Satoshi about his possible involvement in his aunt's murder and Shion had provided a false alibi for him, but since she was posing as Mion and Mion had been seen during the Watanagashi Festival, Shion had to come clean about who she was. However, the police had contracted the Sonozaki Estate to see if she was who she said she was and after being released, she was taken to the Sonozaki Torture Chamber and Oryō was not happy with her due to her relationship with Satoshi, but Shion had stood up to her and told her exactly how she felt about her to her face.

The situation had gotten close to getting out of hand and in truth, Shion was really considering punching her grandmother across the face and she would have done had Mion not intervened and sided with their grandmother. Mion's tone back then was the same tone she was using right now while addressing Yūkimoto; it was, what Shion had secretly dubbed, Clan Heiress Mode. Mion was in Clan Heiress Mode right now. It was the personality she adapted while dealing with Sonozaki Family Matters and when she was dealing with her responsibilities to the Sonozaki Family and she had also adopted it for dealing with Yūkimoto since she did not like him and he only saw her as a Sonozaki.

"Why, I'm here to keep the peace, of course," Yūkimoto replied to Mion's question, sounding rather smug and then he noticed Daisuke, "Ah, the new guy. The one who's suffering from amnesia and doesn't have a clue as to who he is, or so you say."

"That is the truth, Yūkimoto-san," Daisuke said in a rather calm tone, though he maintained a glare, letting his true feelings be known.

"Whatever," Yūkimoto dismissed uncaringly with a shrug, "But if I were you, kid, I'd get the hell out of this disease-ridden village while I still can. After all, it's just full of disgusting, superstitious lowlife riffraff."

"That's not a very nice thing to say," Daisuke pointed out as he noticed that their conversation had caught the attention of the crowd, who were all glaring hatefully towards Yūkimoto. Heck, even the two police officers flanking him were glaring at him, making it clear that they just could not stand him as much as the villagers could, but Yūkimoto just ignored them, not really caring what others thought of him.

"To be perfectly honest with you, I could care less what those country-dwelling rejects think," Yūkimoto proclaimed loudly, only causing the onlookers to intensify their combining glares as Yūkimoto placed his hands on his hips and puffed out his chest as if he were trying to portray importance.

However, Daisuke could see what he was doing. He was basically taunting the villagers and trying to goad them into attacking him so he could arrest them. That seemed to be one of Yūkimoto's hobbies. If there was one thing that Daisuke could say that he had learned about Yūkimoto, it was that he seemed to have this nasty habit of goading people into attacking him so he could have them arrested. He liked to arrest folk regardless of whether they did anything or not. True, he had not seen Yūkimoto actually arrest someone, but the way he interacted with others, it was clear that he just wanted to arrest them.

"By the way, boy, have you heard of the series of mysterious deaths and disappearances that plagued the Watanagashi Festival for four years?" Yūkimoto went on, causing the members of the Gaming Club, aside from Mion's eyes to widen in shock.

"As a matter of fact, I have," Daisuke said in a tone similar to Mion's, causing the others to turn and stare at him in surprise since aside from Mion, none of them knew that Daisuke had been told, "And as I understand it, that was just a series of contrived coincidences and not the work of Oyashiro-sama like the villagers believed and I also know that the Sonozaki Family claimed credit for it all to look more intimidating than they actually were."

Yūkimoto's eyes widened in surprise and shock and it became clear that he obviously had not considered the possibility that anyone would tell him and Daisuke could tell that Yūkimoto was obviously intending to drive a wedge between him and the others.

"Sure, that's what they want you to think," Yūkimoto said after he calmed down and regained his composure, "Or maybe you're right. Maybe they were all just coincidence."

He then paused and turned to face Satoko and a rather sinisterly cruel and sadistic smile crept onto his face that made Satoko's skin crawl and she found herself taking a few steps back..

"After all," the cruel detective went on, still talking to Daisuke, "I find it interesting, Satoko-san, that you were with your ryōshin when they perished."

Satoko's eyes widened in alarm, as did Rika's and Hanyū's and the others turned to look at her. Daisuke was also surprised, since neither Reno nor Mion told him that, but he immediately dismissed it as either they did not know or they probably felt that it was not their place to tell him.

"You claimed that you were asleep in their car," Yūkimoto went on as he spoke to Satoko in a rather cruelly excited tone, "And yet, there's eyewitness testimony that places you with them before they fell to their deaths. Now why would you lie? The answer; because you murdered them. They didn't fall off that balcony, they were pushed. You pushed them off; therefore you are guilty of murder."

"No, no, no!" Satoko said in an increasingly panicked tone, "That's not true, that's not true, I thought…"

"There, you see, she admits it!" Yūkimoto stated as he pointed an accusing finger at Satoko, who dropped to her knees, shaking her head and brought her hands up to the sides of her head, "Murderer, she murdered her ryōshin, the last part of her statement proves it. I know because I did a background check on you Satoko-san. You never did get on with your haha or any of the men she married. In fact, you also filed false abuse reports to social services for each of your gifu."

"That's enough, Yūkimoto!" Rika warned, surprising Daisuke as she spoke, not in a child-like voice, but a voice that sounded as if it belonged to someone older and more mature.

However, Yūkimoto just ignored her and then turned to face Rena, still with his sickeningly sadistic smile.

"And you, Ryūgū-san, I also know about that incident in Ibaraki," he then went on to proclaim as Rena's eyes widened in shock, "Oh yes, I know that at one of Ibaraki's chūgakkō, you attacked three of your classmates and then smashed all the windows with a baseball bat. I can understand though, your ryōshin were going through a rather bitter divorce and you were resorting to violence as a coping mechanism, weren't you? I heard that you were hospitalised afterwards."

Daisuke glared at Yūkimoto as he went on, apparently taking great pleasure in tormenting his friends and reducing them to emotional wrecks. Sure, he would admit that he did not know any of this. He had guessed that Rena's parents were divorced, but he did not know that Rena had gone into a deranged state and attacked people, neither did he know that Satoko had killed her parents… at least according to Yūkimoto, but he understood why Rena had not mentioned that to him. It had obviously been a difficult time she had been going through and was painful to talk about.

Rena's eyes widened in shock as Yūkimoto continued to sadistically taunt her.

"I also heard that you moved back to Hinamizawa because you claimed that Oyashiro-sama told you to," he went on as Rena fell to her knees and stared in shock.

"She did," Rena said simply, "She told me that if I wanted to be safe, then I had to return to Hinamizawa. She was punishing me because I left the village."

"Huh, she, I was under the impression that Oyashiro-sama was male," Yūkimoto said in surprise over the fact that Rena addressed Oyashiro-sama as female.

Hanyū flinched at hearing Rena's comment and Daisuke noticed that she had a rather guilty expression on her face as she stared at Rena.

"It's true," Rena spoke up as she stood up, overcoming her shock and glared at Yūkimoto, "Oyashiro-sama is female; I heard her voice as she spoke to me."

"Such a thing could be seen as blasphemous round here," Yūkimoto noted as he looked around and saw that the crowd were all shocked and surprised at hearing Rena's declaration of Oyashiro-sama's gender.

He then turned his attention to Keiichi.

"And you, Maebara-san, don't think I don't know that you used to go round assaulting children with a BB gun," he proclaimed as he continued to maintain his cruel smile, "Oh yes, you were a genius, but you grew bored of studying and purchased a BB gun and then terrorised the neighbourhood by attacking children, but then you turned yourself in after you shot a girl in the eye."

Keiichi sighed as he hung his head down and stared at the ground as he remembered that incident. In truth, he had been planning to go home, but he noticed the girl and seeing that she was one her own, he found that it was just too good an opportunity to pass up and so he decided to target her, but unfortunately she had noticed him and in his surprise, he had pulled the trigger and his movements had altered the gun's trajectory and the girl got hit in the eye. It was that incident that had caused him to turn himself in since he knew that he had gone too far and going over the warnings about the BB gun, it had stated that shots to the eyes could cause blindness and it was only then that he turned himself in. He really had not meant to seriously hurt anyone. He just thought that it was fun, but seeing the girl clutch her eye in pain, all of a sudden, it just was not fun anymore.

"Just so you know; that girl ended up becoming blind in her right eye," Yūkimoto went on in a gleeful tone, clearly enjoying it.

Keiichi just flinched, unable to say anything in his defence. What could he say?

Yūkimoto then focussed on Shion.

"You escaped from St. Lucia Gakuen two years ago," he went on as his expression transformed into one of pure contempt, "Not really much I can say about you, is there."

He then focused on Hanyū who immediately jumped behind Rika and looked out from her side.

"And you… I don't have much on you," Yūkimoto went on as he noted Hanyū's horns on the sides of her head, "Furude Hanyū, eh, is that even your real name, I wonder and those horns, what's with those horns?"

"Au-au-au-au!" Hanyū cried, upset that Yūkimoto was commenting on her horns.

"And what's with that stupid verbal tic?" the cruel detective went on as he snorted at Hanyū, giving her a look of disgust and contempt, "You're just a freak of nature."

He then focused on Rika and his look turned into a repulsed glare.

"And you're the biggest freak of them all," he practically spat in disgust, "Must feel really good having a whole community bowing down and kissing your ass."

"Yūkimoto-san, that's rude," the police officer to his right said in alarm, "Using such language in front of minors…"

"I could care less for these piles of filth," Yūkimoto replied with a look of contempt before focusing his attention back on Rika, "Anyway, before being assigned to replace that fat old geezer, Ōishi, I was part of the Keishichō and it was there I overheard quite an interesting conversation between one, Akasaka Mamoru and his tsuma, Yukie."

Rika's eyes widened in shock as she remembered who Akasaka was. Akasaka Mamoru had been a junior member of the Keishichō who had been sent to send to investigate the kidnapping of Inukai Toshiki, the Kokudokōtsūshō Daijin's grandson because the authorities suspected that the anti-dam movement in Hinamizawa was responsible due to their opposition of the dam back in 1978. Anyway, Rika remembered that she had first met him at the bus stop after he had gotten off the bus and he had been worried that she believed that he had sinister intentions, but Rika had just dismissed him with a friendly smile. Later, Rika had been alone with Akasaka and she had told him the events that she remembered from previous worlds, which were going to happen in the future; including her death in the June of 1983 and then told him to go back to Tōkyō otherwise he would regret it.

The reason she had told him to go back to Tōkyō was because his wife, Akasaka Yukie was in hospital expecting their baby daughter and she often ventured onto the hospital roof. However, during Akasaka's time in Hinamizawa, Yukie had been on her way back to her room when she slipped and fell down a flight of stairs. They had managed to safe her baby, but Yukie died and Akasaka had been living a life of regret since in most worlds, Akasaka did not heed her warning, but then in the second-last world, somehow Akasaka did heed Rika's warning and Yukie survived since she did not go up to the roof. Instead, one of the hospital's janitors had slipped and fell instead. That had been one of the factors that had inspired her to fight on when she had all but given up in trying to avert her fate and in this current world, it was Akasaka who convinced Dr. Irie, Tomitake and Ōishi to take her word for it when they were sceptical about her accusations against Takano.

"Oh yes, I know of Akasaka-san and how you told him to go back to Tōkyō when he was here six years ago," Yūkimoto went on as he snarled contemptuously at the purplish blue-haired girl, "And I also heard that you recounted each individual incident that would occur before they happened; like you knew that they would happen and you know what, they did happen just as you said."

Rika's eyes widened in fear as Yūkimoto told her of what he knew and Yūkimoto noticed this.

"Now, I don't believe in soothsayers since precognitive vision is impossible and yet, you accurately predicted the future and the people round this hellhole think you're Oyashiro-sama reincarnated," Yūkimoto went on as his tone became filled with more and more hatred and contempt as he spoke, "But you know what I think?"

He then paused and walked right up to Rika, who tried to back away, but had become rooted to the spot with petrifying fear since she feared that her friends may start asking questions that she was not prepared to answer. Due to the repeated worlds, her soul had aged and Rika was become wise beyond her years, understanding subjects that were mostly beyond anyone else of her age's comprehension. However, she kept this hidden from the others and acted as if she was still an eleven-year-old girl for fear that revealing her true personality would frighten them. However, now Yūkimoto, without realising it, was threatening to blow away her façade and just to satisfy his own twisted sense of fun.

"I think you're a freak of nature," Yūkimoto said as he violently slammed his knee right into Rika's face, causing everyone to gasp in shock as Rika fell to the ground, clutching her face.

"Oops, gomenasai," Yūkimoto laughed, making it clear that he was not really sorry at all, "That was an accident."

"Hey, that was completely uncalled for," Daisuke spoke up, having heard enough, "If you have nothing good to say, then leave us alone! I'll admit that I don't know everything, but then again, it's none of my business!"

"But you're hanging out with them, surely you have a right to know their darkest secrets," Yūkimoto said as he grinned at Daisuke.

"They only revealed to me, what they were comfortable with revealing," Daisuke said as he glowered at Yūkimoto, "Everyone has secrets that they don't want anyone; not even the people closest to them to know about. Sure, I'll admit that I've probably been kept in the dark about a few things, but hey, how's what happened in the past my business, eh? They have their reasons for keeping things from me and even if they sound ridiculous to anyone else, they are sincere to them. If being friends with someone means that your life has to be an open book to them, then I'd rather be alone and friendless."

"Dai-chan…" Mion said in surprise, unable to believe that despite what Yūkimoto revealed, Daisuke was standing up for them.

However, what he had just said… or at least the last sentence of his statement filled her with a sense of déjà vu. She could not remember all that well, but somehow she remembered saying something similar to Keiichi, but unfortunately, she just could not recall the incident clearly. All she knew that Keiichi had decided to come clean about his past and Rena had gone missing, but she could not remember when that was.

"That's the talk of someone who has something to hide," Yūkimoto stated as he looked at Daisuke and suddenly his expression burst out into a really sinister grin that sent shivers down Daisuke's spine as he could not help but get a sense of déjà vu as he somehow remembered someone giving him a similar smile, "You have amnesia, right? Well, maybe you have amnesia because you've done something horrible yourself and you know what, uncovering what that is will be a joy."

Daisuke's eyes widened as he started to tremble. Somehow, Yūkimoto's words filled him with foreboding dread and he felt as if his blood had run cold. He did not know why, but something about what Yūkimoto had just said did not sit too well with him and thinking about it, he could not help but wonder if that indeed rang true. What if he really had done something horrible? Such a notion terrified him as he honestly could not see himself doing something so terrible that he would need to have his memories erased.

"Yūkimoto-san, I suggest you leave us alone," Mion said in the same emotionless tone as before and Yūkimoto noted that there was also an added coldness that had not been there before, "You're not well liked here and I think it would be in your best interests to leave! After all, you never know when someone might decide to take matters into their own hands and you end up with a dagger in your back."

"Is that a threat?" Yūkimoto challenged as he glared at Mion, who remained calm and emotionless and not only met his glare, but returned it with even more intensity.

"That is a warning, now leave!" Mion said in a tone that suggested that this was the final warning.

"Heh, fine," Yūkimoto said with a shrug as he turned and started to walk away, but then stopped and turned his head back to stare at Mion, "But know this, Sonozaki-san, someday I will see you and the rest of your rotten family swinging at the end of a rope."

He then stormed off with the two officers flanking him giving everyone apologetic looks.

* * *

Meanwhile, out in the nearby forest, not far from where the festival was taking place, in a clearing, the figure that had been watching Daisuke two days previously was busy pouring bags of an unidentified white substance into an oil drum. At first glance, this substance resembled sugar or salt, but was neither. It was the substance that the figure needed to enact his plan.

"There, that should about do it," he said with a sinister smile on his face as he filled the oil drum to the top, "Now, Shishigō, you've been inactive for far too long. It's about time that you were put through your paces. We shall soon see how much being on the run has caused your skills to diminish."

He then took out a matchbox from the inside of his trenchcoat and upon opening it, took out a match and lit it and was about to drop it on top of the white substance when he heard footsteps coming towards him.

"Hey, you, just what do you think you're doing?" a voice came and the figure noticed a man dressed in a police uniform walking out into the clearing.

The figure stood still and remained silent.

"Hey, I'm talking to you," the policeman said as he started to walk towards the figure, but suddenly a thick long purple spike suddenly shot out from the figure's direction and the policeman's eyes widened in disbelief just as the spike shot through his throat, and sent him flying into a tree that was situated behind him. The spike then penetrated the tree and pinned the officer in place as he hung from his throat.

"Do not interrupt the experiment," the figure said before turning his attention back to the oil drum and frowned once he noticed that his match had already burnt out.

However, he just threw it to the side and took out another one and lit it before dropping it into the oil drum. Once the burning match fell on top of the white substance, the contents of the oil drum erupted in flames creating a fire that climbed to at least two storeys high.

"And now, my dear Shishigō, your first test begins," the figure said as he stared up at the flames, completely mesmerised and awe struck by their beauty and a sinister smile suddenly materialised on his face, "Let the death and destruction begin."

* * *

Back with the Gaming Club, Rika was wincing in pain; her face still sore from Yūkimoto's assault. Satoko had suffered a complete emotional breakdown after Yūkimoto's tirade of accusations.

"Gomenasai, gomenasai, gomenasai," she was currently repeating over and over as if it was a mantra.

Daisuke looked at the scene and could not help but sympathise with Satoko. He had heard what Yūkimoto had said and from the way Satoko was reacting, it was clear to him that his accusations rang true. Shion was currently seeing to Satoko and was trying her best to snap her out of her depressed state.

"Damn that Yūkimoto," he cursed as she brought his hands to his sides and balled them into fists, "He totally ruined the good mood."

"I'll say," Keiichi said, feeling as infuriated as Daisuke was.

"What the hell's that guy's problem?" Daisuke asked no one in particular, "It's like he's out to deliberately make other people's lives a living hell."

"He's a monster," Mion said dismissively as she saw to Rika, "I suddenly get the feeling that he doesn't really care whether or not we Sonozakis are guilty or innocent of the Watanagashi Murders and Disappearances; he just wants to arrest us all anyway."

"Yeah, I get that feeling to," Daisuke said as he looked at Satoko with a look of concern, "And he really shook Satoko-san up."

Mion then looked towards Satoko as she continued repeating the word, "gomenasai" over and over again.

"Daisuke-kun," Rena said, catching Daisuke's attention and he turned to see Rena looking at him with a hopeful look in her eyes, "About what Yūkimoto-san said…"

"You mean about what happened in Ibaraki?" Daisuke said, interrupted her, "Don't worry about it, Rena-san. I'm not angry at you or anything."

"B-b-b-but," Rena stuttered as tears started to well up in her eyes.

"You kept it from me," Daisuke said simply in a dismissive tone, "I won't pretend that I understand your situation, but I can understand why you'd be reluctant to tell me. I told you before, if there's anything you're not comfortable talking about, then don't."

"Daisuke-kun…" Rena said before bursting into tears and then wrapped her arms round Daisuke and buried her face in his chest and Daisuke brought his arms round her to comfort her.

"Dai-chan, arigatō," Mion said feeling rather relieved that Daisuke had stood up for them despite Yūkimoto revealing too much.

She had been somewhat rather afraid that Daisuke would abandon them, feeling rather infuriated that they had not been completely open with him, but from what she saw, he still stood by them and even gave Yūkimoto a piece of his mind and it seemed that he understood that they were not comfortable with telling him everything. She recalled back to their conversation two days ago that once Daisuke saw that she was getting uncomfortable, he had decided to end the conversation and not pry further.

"Like I said before, if having friends means having to tell them every aspect of your life, then I'd rather be alone and friendless," Daisuke said with a shrug before turning his attention back towards Satoko.

"How is she?" he asked, showing concern for her.

Sure he had to admit that from the way she acted, it was clear that Yūkimoto had been right and she had killed her parents, which meant that at least one of the mysteries had been solved, but from the way Satoko was right now, he knew that there had to be more to it and Daisuke was not a person who took sides until he had heard all sides of a story. He knew that Satoko had her reasons for killing her parents and from how she was acting, it was clear that it was probably an accident; a rather tragic accident.

Shion opened her mouth to reply, but a woman's scream interrupted her before she could say anything and everyone turned their heads in the direction of the scream and their eyes widened in shock and disbelief when they saw Yūkimoto lying face down on the ground, apparently dead with a grey dart like dagger lodged in his back. The area of his back round the impact zone was already stained with blood and not too far away from where Yūkimoto lay, standing with an outstretched arm was what appeared to be a dark grey wooden human-sized puppet. It soon became pretty obvious that this puppet was the culprit behind Yūkimoto's murder.

The puppet itself was a dark grey colour that wore baggy trousers that went down to its knees and was a darker shade of grey than the wood. It also wore a short-sleeved shirt with very short baggy sleeves that only covered its shoulders and was a lighter shade of grey than its trousers, but still a darker shade than the wood that made up its "skin". On its face was a light grey mask that covered its upper face that was designed similarly to the mask worn by the Phantom of the Opera and atop its head was a small, strapless black capotain-style hat.

"What in the…?" Mion started to say in disbelieve as she suddenly noticed a second puppet being lowered down from the sky and into the centre of their midst, "There's another one!"

She pointed up to the second puppet that landed in the centre of the Gaming Club and then came to life as it raised its hands and a pair of curved blades appeared in its hands out of thin air. Thinking quickly, Mion lunged towards the puppet, which looked identical to the first and brought her knee up, slamming it into the puppet's face before it had a change to attack. The puppet stumbled back, being momentarily stunned, but recovered fairly quickly.

"Make a run for it!" Keiichi shouted out as the Gaming Club all scattered.

* * *

"What sorcery is this?" an old man that was identified as Kimiyoshi Kiichirō said as he started in disbelief as more puppets started to appear; some armed with dart-like daggers identical to the one that killed Yūkimoto, some armed with metal curved blades like the ones the second puppet produced and some armed with old-fashioned shotguns.

As for the puppets themselves, they all mostly looked identical in appearance aside from the headgear and the fact that some had dark brownish red shirts instead of grey. Some wore capotain hats, some wore jester-style hats and some wore no hats at all.

However, before Kimiyoshi could contemplate further, one of the puppets threw its curved blades at him. The first one missed, but the second one sailed cleanly right through his neck, causing his head to fall right off his shoulders.

* * *

"Kimiyoshi-ojīchan!" Mion called out in absolute horror as she witnessed what had just happened.

"What the heck is going on?" Shion said in disbelief as she stood with Satoko in her arms, looking around in horror and disbelief.

* * *

People were screaming as they tried to flee the oncoming life-sized puppets. However, the puppets went on the attack, throwing their daggers and curved blades, killing people as they went. The ones armed with shotguns twirled their wrists before taking aim with their shotguns and then firing, mowing more people down.

"Demons!" someone shouted out, "It's the work of demons; those puppets are bewitched!"

"Enemies of Oyashiro-sama!" another person claimed, only to be shot by a shotgun-wielding puppet.

* * *

One brave man took a butcher's knife and ran towards the nearest puppet, a dagger-wielding puppet.

"Get outta our village!" he screamed as he thrust the knife into the centre of the puppet's forehead, but the puppet just took both daggers in its left hand and then brought its right hand up and pulled the knife out of its head and then threw it at a fleeing woman, hitting her right in the head.

The puppet then took one dagger back in its right hand and the man backed away in fear.

"No way," he said in a panicked tone, "How in the hell are we supposed to kill these things?"

The puppet hissed as it advanced on him and he tried to turn and run, but the puppet caught him by the shoulders and jumped up onto his shoulders in a sitting position and crossed its legs behind him, ensuring that it would not fall off. It then started repeated stabbing the sides of the man's head till he fell to the ground, dead.

However, just as the puppet was about to hunt down more victims, Rena came running up behind it, armed with her trademark clever with the fang-like spike near the end of the blade and noticing that the puppets were being held up by really thin black strings, she took a swipe at the strings above the puppet. Unfortunately for the puppet, it had been caught off guard and only noticed the clever-wielding girl just as she made her move, cutting through the strings as easily as cutting through butter. With its strings severed, the puppet fell to the ground, limp and then suddenly transformed into a black mist before dissipating.

"That's it," Rena said after she saw what had happened, "Their strings, that's their weakness."

She then looked around for the other members of the Gaming Club.

"Guys, I know how to kill them!" she called out, "Their strings, cut their strings!"

* * *

Unfortunately the puppets also heard her and suddenly moved around frantically in alarm, realising that one of their number had been "cut down".

* * *

"Way ahead of you, Rena-san," a green-haired woman wielding a katana that Rena recognised as Sonozaki Akane, Mion and Shion's mother said as she lunged towards the puppet nearest to her and slashed at the strings.

The puppet did not have time to react as Akane's katana sliced through its strings and like the one Rena had defeated, it fell limp to the ground and transformed into a black mist and then dissipated, causing the others to look around frantically as they realised that their weakness had been discovered.

* * *

They were in such a panic that they failed to notice Rena as she snuck up behind two of them and like before, she went for their strings with her clever, killing them. A third puppet moved in to slash her with its curved blades, but a katana passed by above it, severing its strings before it had the change to strike.

"Need a hand, Rena?" the katana's wielder, who turned out to be Mion, still in her dress said as she landed on the ground on one knee.

"Mī-chan… arigatō," Rena said in relief since she had noticed the puppet, but it had been too late to do anything.

"Don't mention it," Mion said with a smirk as she stood up and then she and Rena went off to cut down more puppets.

* * *

As for Daisuke, he spent his time dodging the puppets' projectiles as he tried to make sense of the situation. Just what were those puppets? However, as he continued to think about it, he could not help but feel a sudden sense of familiarity with those creatures; like he had encountered them before and the more he thought about it, a name suddenly popped into his mind.

"Sh… Sha… Shad… Shadirā!" he said aloud as he suddenly found himself remembering what they were called despite not remembering any previous encounters with them.

However, he did know that they were a species of demons known as the Shadirā and as he continued to think, his eyes widened as he remembered something else.

"They're just Shadirā foot soldiers, Shadorujā," he went on as he continued to dodge projectiles and studying the Shadirā puppets further, he also was able to put a name to the Shadorujā type, "Marionetto, they're just one type of Shadorujā."

He really could not explain just how the knowledge suddenly became available to him, but he did know, even if he could not remember anything, that he had encountered Shadirā before. It was like their sudden appearance had sparked something inside him. He did not have his memories, but the knowledge of the Shadirā had been unlocked somehow.

Looking around, he saw that the Marionetto were all starting to panic as he witnessed Mion, Rena, Akane and several members of the Sonozaki Family wielding katana swords move in to cut them down. He nodded, knowing that the Marionetto's weakness was their strings. Cutting their strings was an effective method in dealing with them. Once their strings were cut, they could no longer function. He saw Shion and Keiichi had taken shelter in one of the stalls and Shion was hugging Satoko close to her and from the looks of it, Satoko was still in her state of shock from when Yūkimoto had made his accusations. Rika and Hanyū had sought shelter in another stall and Hanyū was occasionally poking her head out from underneath the table to see what was going on.

"Right, that's everyone accounted for," he said to himself.

Watching the Marionetto move, he saw that when chasing after people, instead of running, they had been lifted up by their strings and were gliding after their prey at an incredibly quick rate.

* * *

"Bring it on, you theatre rejects!" Keiichi said challengingly as he suddenly jumped over the table of the stall he was hiding under, armed with Satoshi's baseball bat.

He then charged the nearest Marionetto, which turned round in surprise, being caught off guard and then he slammed the end of the bat in the Marionetto's face. The impact caused the Marionetto to stumble backwards, but Keiichi continued to lunge forward and repeated the process, causing the Marionetto to stumble backwards yet again.

"Kei-chan, get something sharp and severe their strings!" he heard Shion call out.

"I don't have anything sharp!" Keiichi called back, taking his attention away from the Marionetto, which was a mistake since it gave it plenty of time to recover.

However, before it could move to attack, Daisuke came running and brought his knee up and viciously slammed it into the side of the Marionetto's head with such force that its head came right off its shoulders and then the head and the body both transformed into black mist and dissipated.

"Of course, smashing them apart also kills them," Daisuke said as he remembered something else.

"I'm sorry, what?" Keiichi said in confusion.

However Daisuke turned round and glared at Keiichi.

"Kei, you idiot, what were you thinking, attacking them like that?" he said in a scolding tone, "You could've been killed."

Keiichi opened his mouth to protest, but Daisuke's glare only intensified.

"If you don't have some sort of bladed weapon, then don't bother!" Daisuke went on with a sigh.

"You don't have one either," Keiichi pointed out with a defiant glare of his own, though he was trying to find some excuse to defend himself.

"Well, I happen to be looking for one," Daisuke said, a bit surprised as he had to admit that Keiichi had a point, but he then quickly regained his composure, "Either look for one or go back with Shion-san and Satoko-san."

He then went off before Keiichi could reply.

"Humph, I was only trying to help," he huffed as he glared after his friend, "Just where does he get off scolding me like that?"

* * *

Meanwhile, Rena and Mion stood back to back with their backs pressed against each other as they glared around at the Marionetto as they advanced on them.

"Gee, where the hell are they all coming from?" Mion said in frustration, "It doesn't seem to matter how many we take down, more seem to just come up and take their place."

"Search me, Mī-chan," Rena said as she lunged towards a shotgun-wielding Marionetto and severed its strings.

Mion lunged towards a dagger-wielding Marionetto and cut its strings.

A blade-wielding Marionetto came up behind Mion as she was getting up and moved to attack.

"MĪ-CHAN!" Rena called out in warning, causing Mion to turn and notice the Marionetto with its hand raised, ready to bring its blade down, but then Daisuke jumped into Mion's field of vision, delivering a ferocious kick to the side of the Marionetto's torso with such force that the Marionetto itself broke apart and then vanished in a black mist.

"Arigatō, Dai-chan," Mion thanked as she breathed a sigh of relief.

"Don't let up yet," Daisuke said in a serious tone as he shot Mion a stern look, "It's not over yet."

Looking around, Daisuke saw that more and more people were becoming braver as they witnessed the Marionetto being cut down and they came out wielding bladed weapons and he saw that even Keiichi had managed to find a knife and was in the process of cutting a Marionetto's strings as he had jumped onto its shoulders from behind and the Marionetto was thrashing around wildly trying to shake him off and the remaining Marionetto were looking increasingly panicked as the tide was slowly starting to turn against them.

"Nice," Daisuke thought with a smirk, "Looks like this village's inhabitants are smarter than I originally thought. Not only have they discovered the Marionetto's weakness, but they're even starting to hold their own and win."

However, as he started to feel at ease, another thing about the Marionetto suddenly made itself known in his mind and his eyes widened in alarm as he realised that the Marionetto still had one last trick up their sleeves, a trump card.

"Mion-san, Rena-san, mina, be careful!" he shouted in warning, but even as he shouted his warning, the Marionetto all, in desperation let out a rather terrifying ear-piercing shriek that briefly distorted their image and all of a sudden, everyone found themselves being hoisted into the air as demonic blood-red puppet strings held them in place.

"Damn it, their warcry!" Daisuke grumbled aloud.

This was their Immobilisation Warcry, which they normally reserved for desperate situations. Since they only tended to resort to it whenever they were desperate, Daisuke had labelled it, their trump card since it did indeed work like a trump card.

Anyway, Daisuke hung between to Rena and Mion and witnessed one dark brownish red coated Marionetto directing a group of shotgun-wielding Marionetto in front of them and the Marionetto were all lined up perfectly.

"Death by firing squad, real nice to know that you Shadirā have a sense of humour," Daisuke said aloud to the Marionetto in a sarcastic tone.

The lead Marionetto; the one directing traffic just hissed at Daisuke in response after briefly turning to face him, acknowledging that it had heard him.

"I can't believe that it's going to end like this; killed by a pack of puppet theatre rejects," Daisuke said as he shut his eyes, bracing himself for the end, but then all of a sudden, his vision burst into a sea of white.

* * *

**Unknown location, Unknown Prefecture, Japan – Unknown Day, Unknown Month and Unknown Year**

Daisuke found himself standing alone facing down a group of hideously deformed black creatures with burning red eyes that looked a bit like dogs. One of the things Daisuke did notice though was that he was just child round about Rika, Satoko and Hanyū's age and yet he was not afraid of these creatures. He knew that they were another type of Shadorujā, different from the Marionetto, but in the same classification of Shadirā as them. Despite his age, he shot all of them a determined glare as they all snarled and gnashed at him.

"Okay," child-Daisuke said as he brought his hands to either side of the buckle of his belt and pushed the black oval inwards and then he took the silver outlining in both hands and flicked it round so that it was spinning, "Let's go, Henshin!"

* * *

**Present**

Daisuke's eyes opened wide as he realised that he had just recalled a previous memory, though he could not remember the name of the Shadirā that he had been facing off against, but he did remember what he had done and with newfound determination he started struggling, which caused the Marionetto to hesitate since anyone caught by their Immobilisation Warcry were usually paralysed and unable to move. Nonetheless, Daisuke managed to fight the paralysis effect and with a few almighty yanks, he was able to free himself, causing the Marionetto to all take a step back in shock as they were unable to comprehend just how Daisuke managed to overpower their spell.

"Alright, guys, this ends here!" Daisuke said in a tone of determination as he levels a glare at the Marionetto who all stood there, feeling rather nervous.

Bringing his hands to either side of his belt buckle, he mimicked his younger self in his memory by pushing the black oval inwards towards him and then flicked the silver outlining, causing it to spin.

"Let's go, Henshin!" he said as the silver outlining's spinning sped up dramatically till it was a blur

"Rōtā Beruto, Sutātoappu," a computerised voice announced, speaking Japanese-accented English and what it announced, translated into proper English meant was, "Rotor Belt, Start-up".

The spinning outlining suddenly emitted a bright white light that cause both Rena and Mion to shut their eyes as they looked on and since they were both completely paralysed, they could not cover their eyes. As the buckle outlining continued to spin and gathered speed, Daisuke felt his body being clad in armour and saw that it was coming from the buckle, the armour started at his waist and then moved in both directions till it covered his entire body, including his head.

Once the light faded, Rena and Mion hesitated for a moment and then opened their eyes and upon seeing Daisuke, their eyes widened in shock at what they saw.

"D-D-Dai-chan?" Mion stuttered in complete disbelief.

"Daisuke-kun?" Rena said in equal disbelief, "What happened to you?"

Daisuke was clad in white boots that went up to just below his knees and at the front of the boots at the top in the centre were two diamond shaped protrusions that acted as knee guards since they covered his knees. He also wore a dark brown bodysuit that was so dark that it could easily be mistaken for black and it was also just as hard as the rest of his armour and had white armour over his upper torso that covered his pectoral muscles at the front and upper back muscles at the back and also covered his shoulders. On his forearms he wore white gauntlets that ran from just below his elbows to his wrists and attached to the gauntlets were white gloves, giving the appearance of elbow-length gloves. His neck area was covered by the same dark brown colour as his bodysuit and his helmet was also dark brown at the sides and back and was designed to resemble a cicada insect's head. At the front were two big crimson red eyes and beneath that where Daisuke's mouth was supposed to be was a silver mouthpiece with horizontal dark brown stripes, two at either side and at the top of the helmet at the front were two silver antennae that made a V shape and a silver vertical line ran down the centre of the front of the helmet between the eyes and ended just above the mouthpiece. However, if that was not enough, then clad at the front of his bodysuit just beneath his white armour was the kanji symbol for death in white and on the back, also in white beneath his armour was the kanji symbol for the number, four and on his the side of right shoulder in the same dark brown colour as his bodysuit was the kanji symbol for death and on his left shoulder was the kanji symbol for four in the same dark brown colour. Also, the black oval at the centre of the buckle had also turned a bright green colour.

The shotgun-wielding Marionette suddenly twirled the wrists of their shotgun-wielding hands and then opened fire, all of them aiming for the armour-clad Daisuke, but Daisuke jumped into the air and then summersaulted behind them while in the air. The Marionetto all started to panic as Daisuke delivered an uppercut to one of them with enough force to decapitate it, causing it to turn into black mist and dissipate and then backhanded another, decapitating it as well. He then brought his knuckles together and the outer sides of his gauntlets produced really long blades that ran the length of the gauntlets and he then got to work, slashing his arms around as he severed the Marionetto's strings The lead Marionetto, which was clad in a dark brownish red shirt tried its Immobilisation Warcry, but Daisuke jumped a good distance away since he knew that it was only effective while within a certain range. He then charged forward and brought his fist forward, ready to slam into the Marionetto's face, but to his surprise, the Marionetto brought both its daggers up in an X formation, blocking his punch.

"Gee, I wasn't expecting that," he groaned in dissatisfaction.

The Marionetto, seeing that he was briefly distracted, brought its left dagger forward, slashing him across the chest, but the impact only caused him to stumble backwards briefly, but otherwise, he was unhurt, but the green light at the centre of his belt buckle became slightly lighter as it started to turn yellow. However, seeing that Daisuke was barely affected by its attack, the Marionetto took a step back, apparently in fear.

"I never thought that your kind were ones for experiencing fear," Daisuke said as he stepped towards the Marionetto, "A Burādi Mari, of course, your tainted shirts make you a tad bit stronger than the regular Marionetto."

He then grabbed the frightened Burādi Mari and threw it up into the air.

"RIDER THROW!" he shouted as he then brought his feet together and then moved to stand up on his tiptoes, but was propelled into the air.

"RIDER JUMP!" he announced as he chased after the Burādi Mari and once level with it, he clasped his hands firmly together above his head and then brought them down in front of himself, slamming them into the Burādi Mari.

"RIDER PLUMMETING SMASH!" he shouted as the Burādi Mari went plummeting to the ground and upon slamming into the ground and the momentum from the fall caused it to smash to pieces upon impact.

Once Daisuke landed on the ground again, he quickly stood up as he heard projectiles coming towards him and reached out his hands, grabbing a curved blade in each one and then spun round and threw them right back at the Marionetto that threw them, with the first decapitating it and the second cutting through the waist.

He then lunged towards Mion and Rena who were still suspended in mid-air and cut the strings holding them in place.

"Are you girls alright?" he asked with concern evident in his voice.

"Dai-chan, is that really you under there?" Mion asked in shocked astonishment, unable to believe that this was really the boy she and her Gaming Club had found over a month ago.

"Huh?" Daisuke said in confusion, "What're you talking about Mion-san? Of course it's me."

However, with the adrenaline from the battle with the Marionetto coming down, he suddenly noticed that something was indeed different as he found himself seeing the world in a variety of red shades and looking down at her hands as he brought them up in front of him, he found himself astonished at seeing the armour he was wearing.

"Wow, this is… wow…" Daisuke said, unable to comprehend what had happened, "So that's what my belt does, I knew that it would give me the power to turn this around."

"Daisuke-kun, are you alright?" Rena asked, looking unsure on whether or not she wanted to approach him, "What are you?"

"I don't…" Daisuke started to say, but then he suddenly found himself remembering something else as a name for what he was entered his mind, "Okay, scratch that, I'm a Kamen Rider, whatever that is."

"Huh?" Mion and Rena both said in unison as they gave Daisuke confused looks.

"Look, I'm not really sure what's going on or how this happened myself," Daisuke explained as he raised his hand, telling Mion and Rena to let him speak, "Ever since the Shadirā attacked, I found myself remembering things that I couldn't remember before. However, though I can't remember any individual encounters, I seem to remember the knowledge I gained from them."

"Okay, Dai-chan, we'll drop this for now," Mion said with a nod as she decided to drop the subject for now since there were more pressing matters to attend to; like dealing with the remaining Marionetto.

"I believe you, Daisuke-kun," Rena said with a nod before going off to hunt down Marionetto.

"I don't know quite what this power is or how I got it," Daisuke said to himself, "But I might as well use it while it's available to me. Okay, let's go, Kamen Rider…"

He then paused as he realised that he had not thought of a name for his Kamen Rider persona. He then started to think of a name, something that matched what he wanted to do right at that very moment.

"Kamen Rider Power, nah, sounds too ambitious," he went on as he folded his arms and started to ponder, "Kamen Rider Protector… nah, too simple and boring, something that's to do with protection would be nice, but what?"

He then went through a list of things that had to do with protection, but which did not sound so blatantly obvious and he then thought about Greek Mythology, specifically Zeus and the goddess, Athena and what they both shared.

"That's it," he said as he got ready to fight, "Let's go, Kamen Rider Aegis."

He then shot off towards the nearest group of Marionetto and then started picking them apart as he freed those who had been caught with their Immobilisation Warcry.

With Daisuke, now Aegis's help, it did not take long for the remaining Marionetto to fall as Daisuke and the teenage members of the Gaming Club sans Shion, who was looking after Satoko were mostly responsible for their downfall, though a few lucky villagers managed to take down a few.

However, just as everyone was starting to relax and Rika, Hanyū, Shion and Satoko emerged from their hiding places, a rather deep laugh echoed throughout the air.

"What now, I thought we defeated all those demonic puppets," Mion said in frustration.

"Look!" Satoko said, pointing up at the sky, having recovered from her emotional breakdown.

Aegis looked up and his eyes narrowed from inside his helmet as he saw something descend and it was not another Marionetto, in fact it did not look like a puppet at all, but instead a legless spectre clad in a black, dark green-tinted cloak with only its hands and face visible. Its hands were the same shade of dark grey as the wood the Marionetto were made from as was its face. It had black painted eyelids and glowing yellow eyes along with two rows of jagged white teeth that were visible from its mouth. It also had two bushes of messy black hair on either side of its head that ran round the back and wore a black conical pointed hat with a dark glowing red orb situated at the top.

"What the heck is that?" someone asked in confusion.

"Maybe he's their leader," a woman suggested as she thought back to the Marionetto rampage.

"A Shadevā!" Aegis growled dangerously, causing everyone to look at him.

This was no ordinary Shadirā like the Marionetto, this was a Shadevā, the next stage in the Shadirā ranking system and unlike the Shadorujā, they were not as easy to defeat. Behind every Shadorujā group was a Shadevā and they normally functioned as commanders; like that woman had said, this was the Marionetto's leader and the Shadevā behind them and he managed to identify it as a Papettiā, the Shadevā that were usually behind Marionetto.

Looking down at Aegis and the villagers, the Papettiā snarled at them, clearly infuriated at the demise of its underlings. How dare these pathetic wastrels kill its underlings, they were just pathetic and weak humans. How they managed to defeat the Marionetto was simply beyond its comprehension. Humans were not meant to fight back and triumph, they were supposed to tremble in fear as they were mowed down. Those thoughts passed through the Papettiā's mind and the more it tried to comprehend how things had gone so terribly wrong, the angrier it became and its glare became fixated on Aegis as it decided that he must have been the one who was ultimately responsible for the defeat of the Marionetto and let out a loud roar at him.

"Yeah, bring it on, you overrated hack," Aegis taunted in response as he shook his fist at it, "I'm waiting for ya."

In response the Papettiā reached into its cloak and pulled out a torso-shaped puppet, clad in black samurai-style armour along with the strings and threw it down to the ground while still holding onto the strings and the threw the strings up into the air. The strings held the puppet up as arms popped out from the sides; also clad in black armour and legs popped out from the bottom and the head popped out from the top, clad in a black samurai-style helmet and mask. In all, it looked like a human-sized samurai puppet and the Papettiā reached into its cloak once again and pulled out a katana sword and threw it down to the samurai puppet, which came to life as it reached out its hand and grabbed the sword and then the Papettiā pointed to the villagers and the samurai nodded as it looked up at its master.

"Samurai Shōgun Papetto," Aegis noted as he witnessed the samurai puppet advance on the villagers.

This was what the Papettiā did and how it fought, it created puppets in the likeness of ancient samurai to do its bidding, which was how they got their name. However, it was basically a different type of Marionetto and shared the same weaknesses and was just as strong as a Marionetto despite it not being officially classed as a Shadirā type.

Looking up, Aegis saw the Papettiā repeat the process two more times, creating two more Samurai Shōgun Papetto before turning its attention towards him before reaching into its cloak yet again and pulled out two sets of puppet strings that were not attached to any puppets and Aegis knew that this was how the Papettiā fought whenever it decided to fight personally. It used puppet strings as whips and the Papettiā brought its right hand forward and Aegis was forced to dodge the strings as they touched the ground, causing the impact area to explode. However, it then brought its left hand forward, lashing out as Aegis dodged yet again, this time, the strings hit a stall, causing it to explode.

* * *

Rena and Mion got ready as the three Samurai Shōguns advanced on them.

"So, Rena, do you think those guys share the same weakness as those other puppets?" Mion asked as she and Rena both back away from them.

"I don't see why not," Rena said as she noted that the strings did look identical to the ones that held up the Marionetto.

"Do you wanna risk testing it?" Mion asked as she looked at her friend, who just smiled arrogantly back to her.

"Let's do it, Mī-chan," Rena said with a nod and both girls lunged towards the three Samurai Shōguns.

The Samurai Shōguns, upon noticing that the two girls were rushing towards them suddenly burst into a run and unlike the Marionetto, they were running on the ground and not gliding. This was something that separated the Samurai Shōguns from the Marionetto; they may share the same weaknesses and may be just as strong, but they were also a lot quicker, which made them more dangerous and unfortunately, their speed caught both girls off-guard as they both stopped running and were only barely able to bring their weapons up to block the Samurai's slashes. With Rena and Mion occupied with two of them, the third moved behind them and prepared to deliver a killing slash at their backs, but before the blade could connect, another blade blocked its path, causing Rena and Mion to look and their eyes widened as they saw Akane holding her own katana in a horizontal position.

"Okā-sama?" Mion said, surprised to see her mother.

"Never mind me, you two, just concentrate on your own opponents, I'll deal with the third," Akane replied, giving both girls a stern look and they both nodded both turned their attention back to their opponents.

* * *

Meanwhile, Aegis continued to jump, zip and weave as he dodged the Papettiā's exploding puppet string whips. Unfortunately he could not find an opening and he just could not mount an offence. All he could do was dodge as the Papettiā seemed determined to kill him and avenge the loss of its underlings.

"Damn, it sure is determined," Aegis noted as he jumped away from the top of the Furude Shrine as the Papettiā's strings came down on the roof, "I just can't seem to mount an offence."

The Papettiā snarled as it lashed out yet again, but Aegis dodged yet again, only this time, he followed it up with a lunge forward, catching it by surprise and jumped into the air and delivered a punch, right into its cloak, but to his astonishment, his punch just went through the cloak. Unfortunately, this provided an opening for the Papettiā as it moved away from Aegis and brought up its hand and lashed out with the strings hitting Aegis in the back, causing an explosion that propelled him into the ground. However, somehow, he managed to recover and land on his feet, but the light in the centre of his belt buckle had gotten more yellow and was now starting to turn orange.

"Gotta make sure that it doesn't turn red," Aegis said to himself as he took note of it, "If it does, I'm going to have to retreat and if I do that, the Shadirā win."

Luckily his armour was able to absorb most of the damage caused by the explosion, but he did feel a slight pain in his back, causing him to wince.

"Man, you are seriously going to pay for that," he went on, glaring up at the Papettiā as it unleashed a new attack, which Aegis dodged.

"Of course, it's cloak is only an illusion," he noted as he cursed himself for making that mistake, "If I want to destroy it, I'm going to have to attack the face, but the problem is, its face is too well guarded and I doubt it'll give me another opening like that last one again."

However, as it went on the attack, Aegis observed it, looking for a potential weakness to exploit. Dodging another attack, his eyes widened as he observed the strings. Anything they touched exploded, but during the explosion, they were harmless.

"Of course, it has to recoil them before it can use them again," he noted as he remembered more of the Papettiā Shadevā.

He then glanced towards the villagers and was relieved to see Rena, Mion and Akane dealing with the Samurai Shōguns. Despite being only armed with a clever, Rena sure managed to hold her own. However, the speed of the Samurai Shōguns did pose a massive problem as they just would not stay in one place long enough to have their strings cut.

"Gotta wrap this up, now!" he said to himself as he stared down the Papettiā with a determined look on his face.

* * *

Meanwhile, Mion, Rena and Akane could not help but feel rather frustrated as the three Samurai Shōguns seemed to dance around and just would not stay still.

"Gotta stay calm," Mion thought as she felt her composure slipping and she parried a slash from her opponent, "If I give in, then I'll no doubt slip up and make a mistake and if I make a mistake, that'll be the end of me."

She then parried a few more slashes.

* * *

As for Rena, she was thinking something similar, but armed with a clever; she was having a harder time than either of the Sonozakis. It was harder for her to parry the Samurai's strikes and she found herself dodging more often than naught. Currently however, she found herself stuck in place as she had her clever in front of her, blocking the Samurai's katana as it tried to bring it down on her.

"No, I won't lose," she thought to herself, "I can't lose; I have to help Daisuke-kun."

However, somehow she managed to summon the strength to step to the side, causing the Samurai Shōgun to stumble forwards, since there was nothing holding his sword in place anymore and seeing it in trouble, Rena quickly swung her clever, slicing through the strings, causing it to fall to the ground limp and like the Marionetto before it, it then transformed into a black mist and then dissipated.

"Yatta, I did it!" she said happily as she jumped up and down excitedly in celebration, "I won!"

* * *

"Huh, Rena won?" Mion said in surprise.

However, upon hearing Rena's celebration, the Samurai Shōgun she had been fighting tensed up and hesitated for a moment and that was all Mion needed because by the time it had recovered, it was too late. Mion took her katana and cleanly cut through the strings and the Samurai Shōgun followed its companion in falling to the ground and transforming into a back mist before dissipating.

"Gotcha," Mion said with a rather arrogant smirk, "There's no way that you can beat oji-san."

She then looked over at Rena.

"Hey Rena, let's go and help okā-sama," she called out.

"Right behind you, Mī-chan!" Rena called back as both she and Mion rushed in Akane's general direction.

* * *

Meanwhile, Akane had not been fairing any better than her daughter or her friend. Both she and the Samurai Shōgun danced circles round one another as each of them tried to land a blow. However, basically, most of their fight had involved them both parrying each other's attacks and neither could find an opening.

"A feisty thing, aren't you?" Akane said with a smirk, "I haven't had this much of a workout in such a long time. If it wasn't for the fact that you were a demon hell-bent on destroying my home, I may even have gone as far as to say that I was having fun."

Her expression then became deathly serious as she levelled a glare at her opponent.

"However, you and your kind have invaded our village, killed many of our people and that is something I just cannot forgive," she went on as she caught her opponent's katana with her own and then pushed forward, stunning the Samurai Shōgun for a moment, "And on behalf of my okā-sama and the people of the Village of Hinamizawa, I'm here to tell you that you're not welcome here!"

She then took her katana and quickly sliced through the Samurai Shōgun's strings, causing it to fall limp to the ground.

"Okā-sama!" Mion's voice came as Akane turned to see her daughter and Rena running towards her.

"Akane-san!" Rena shouted in concern.

Upon noticing that Akane's opponent was nowhere to be seen, both girls sighed in relief.

"Hey girls, what kept ya?" Akane said in a joking tone as she let out a chuckle and gave her daughter a loving look as she studied her attire, "You did well, Mion, it seems that hanging out with your friends and participating in those strange club games hasn't dampened your skills any."

"Okā-sama!" Mion said in embarrassment, her face turning a shade of beat red as she realised that she was still wearing the dress that Daisuke had picked out for her.

* * *

Back with Aegis and the Papettiā, the Papettiā unleashed another attack and Aegis moved to dodge, but after the resulting explosion, before the Papettiā could recoil its strings, Aegis suddenly reached out and grabbed them, shocking the Papettiā as it had not expected such a move and before it could recover, Aegis gave the strings one big almighty yank, causing the Papettiā to come hurling towards him and he lunged forwards and slammed his knee right into its face and then crouched down and jumped into the air, delivering a vicious uppercut.

"RIDER UPPERCUT PUNCH!" he shouted as he then brought his feet together and performed a Rider Jump.

"RIDER JUMP!" he screamed as he flew into the air after the Papettiā and brought his leg up in front of him as he ascended higher than the Papettiā.

"This is it, this is the end!" he said in a tone of finality before he brought his leg down on the Papettiā, striking it with the sole of his foot, "RIDER AXE KICK!"

As the name suggested, the Rider Axe Kick somehow went straight through the Papettiā, cutting it in half and it let out a rather loud furious roar as the two halves transformed into black mist and dissipated just as the Marionetto had done.

"Game, set and match!" Aegis declared after landing on the ground and followed each individual word up with an action; as he said, "game" he pointed to where the Papettiā had been; as he said "set", he stuck out his thumb to the side and as he said "and match", he turned his thumb towards the ground in a thumbs-down gesture and thrust his hand downwards with a brief jerk.

He then brought both of his hands to the centre of his belt buckle and pushed it inwards yet again, but this time, he took the outlining and rotated it three hundred and sixty degrees anti-clockwise.

"Return to the Past, now!" he stated as everything suddenly erupted into a sea of white.

* * *

**Monday, 18****th**** June 1984**

Daisuke was currently sitting in the classroom of the Hinamizawa School along with the Gaming Club as he thought about what had just happened the previous day. He and his friends had been at the Watanagashi Festival and after a tense meeting with the police detective, Yūkimoto Ginjurō, a species of demon that Daisuke identified as Shadirā attacked with the Marionetto Shadorujā type being the main culprits, along with their Shadevā commander, the Papettiā. However, after getting caught in the Marionetto's Immobilisation Warcry, he had a memory flash back to a Shadirā encounter and from that, he learned that he was what was called a Kamen Rider and upon noticing this, he had adopted the name, Aegis as a symbol since he wanted to protect the village. In any case, the Shadirā had been defeated, though Daisuke had been surprised that he had help from Rena, Mion, Akane and some more villagers who got lucky.

Anyway, afterwards, he had managed to reset everything by returning everything to the past. Everyone had travelled twenty-four hours backwards in time and those who had died were revived and no one had any memory of the Shadirā attack and come the Watanagashi Festival, it had gone off without a hitch, though unfortunately, Yūkimoto had also been revived, but thankfully, Daisuke managed to avert the encounter with him by moving the Gaming Club to another area and he did get to see Rika perform the Watanagashi Ritual and he had to admit that for someone her age, she was a rather talented and experienced miko. It was like she had been practicing non-stop for years and he had found himself fascinated as he watched her and he had to admit that her miko outfit did make her look cute.

"Hey, hello, Earth to Dai," Keiichi's voice came and Daisuke noticed Keiichi waving his hand in front of his face as he came back to reality

"Huh, I'm sorry, Kei, did you say something?" Daisuke said as he shook his head to dispel his thoughts.

"So Dai-chan," Mion said as she turned to look at him, "We were wondering if you feel like explaining to us what happened yesterday."

"Huh, what do you mean?" Daisuke said in confusion.

"What Mī-chan means is, how come those puppet things attacked and then afterwards we found ourselves back to the previous day and then we lived through the Watanagashi Festival again?" Rena asked curiously.

"And just what was with that armour anyway?" Keiichi asked, also interested in what Daisuke had to say, "Are you some sort of manga superhero or something?"

Daisuke's eyes widened in shock and disbelief as he heard this. This should not happen. They remembered the Shadirā encounter, but just how was that possible? He had to admit that without his memories, he could not remember the previous times he had returned everything to the past, but he did remember the knowledge of how it worked. Whenever he reset the timeline, everyone he came across had no memories of what had happened after the point in which he had returned to and yet, here these people were who were apparently immune. Sure, he knew that there were those who were immune, but that was only due to certain circumstances that he could not remember, but he did know that none of these people met those circumstances.

However, unbeknownst to him, he was not the only one who was surprised. Rika and Hanyū were also surprised as well. Due to them being the main players in the "Eternal June" as Rika had dubbed it, both girls had developed immunity to time-resets due to Hanyū's power, but none of the others had ever shown signs of similar immunity, though Rika did admit that Keiichi did once remember that time when he went insane with paranoia and ended up beating Rena and Mion to death, which was unusual since the Keiichi that remembered the incident was not the same Keiichi of that world, which Rika had called the Onikakushi-hen World. The Keiichi that remembered was the "Tsumihoroboshi-hen" Keiichi. Both of them were Maebara Keiichi and yet, they were two different people at the same time.

"Just what the heck is going on here?" Rika thought in confusion, "How is it that the others are immune to Daisuke's time-reset ability?"

* * *

**Author's Notes** – Another chapter done and I must say that it took me longer than expected. If I had gotten this completed when I planned, it would have come out on Christmas Day and world have been a Christmas Present for you all. Anyway, a few things to note. The Shadirā, as you probably already have guessed are based off the Marionettes from the first Devil May Cry game and the Papettiā Shadevā was partially based off the Sin/Death enemies from the same game and the Puppeteer (Mari in the Japanese Version) mini-boss in the Dynamite Headdy Sega Mega-Drive game. I do realise that some of this chapter resembles Kamen Rider Chrome's Kamen Rider Shōwa's introduction chapter and I apologise if it looks like plagiarising, but I've been over it with him and he approves (actually called the paper-route job a shout-out to his character).


	4. Explanations

**Higurashi no Naku Koro ni: Kamen Rider Aegis**

**Explanations**

**Disclaimer** – I do not own anything from either Higurashi no Naku Koro ni or Kamen Rider. Higurashi is the property of Ryūkishi07, 07th Expansion and Studio Deen and Kamen Rider is the property of Shōtaro Ishinomori, Tōru Hirayama and Mainichi Broadcasting Systems Inc. Also anything based off characters, enemies etc. from other works or any characters from other works, the things that they're based on and those characters are the property of their respective creators, companies etc. Also this fic was inspired by the fic, Kamen Rider Shōwa, which is the property of Kamen Rider Chrome and following a similar setting. It is not my intention to plagiarise from him and after discussing the idea with him, I have permission to do this fic.

* * *

**Unknown Location, Unknown Prefecture, Japan – Monday 18****th**** June 1984**

Down in the bottom floor of Kagemaru Bunshin's secret facility, in the darkness of Reigō's room, Reigō was currently sitting in front of a screen that provided most of the light in the room as he witnessed Kamen Rider Aegis deal with the Marionetto Shadorujā and the Papettiā Shadevā in Hinamizawa the previous day during the Watanagashi Festival… well, technically it was two days ago since after the Papettiā had been defeated, Aegis had reset everything to the previous day. However, none of that currently mattered to Reigō as screeds and screeds of red text started appearing on the screen even as the image continued to play out. To most people, they would be hard pressed to understand or even comprehend the meaning of the text on the screen. Heck, even Maebara Keiichi, who was an intellectual genius in his own right would not be able to understand it and yet, Reigō understood every letter of the text as it he had been reading a passage from a child's book. This represented the data that Aegis's Rotor Belt had collected and once the data had been collected, it had sent it to Kagemaru's mainframe, which it had been programmed to do.

"So, musuko-chan, it would appear as if your skills have not diminished as much as we had initially thought," Reigō mused to himself, talking to no one in particular since he was alone, "And I'm a bit surprised that the villagers were able to put up quite a fight and even turn the tables."

The image on the screen changed and showed Mion, Rena and Akane dealing with the Samurai Shōgun Papetto, the Papettiā's main minions and he had to admit that he was impressed.

"Nonetheless though, Marionetto are among the weakest type of Shadorujā and unfortunately Jūgogō's Shadirā Samoningu Paudā has no control over what type of Shadirā it will attract," he went on with a sigh, "I was really hoping for a more challenging type of Shadorujā. Oh well, beggars can't be choosers I suppose. Shishigō has already surpassed my expectations anyway."

He then paused as the image switched back to Aegis, who was currently confronting the Papettiā and observed as Aegis went on to defeat it.

"Most impressive, musuko-chan, you took advantage of the fact that its strings had to be recoiled before they became dangerous again," Reigō went on, talking to himself, "That's you all over. It seems that milling around with the riffraff weaklings of the village hasn't affected your deduction skills any. You always did look for a weakness in your opponents before you ruthlessly exploited them with deadly precision and accuracy, but still… despite this, you've weakened somewhat."

A disappointed expression suddenly materialised on his face as he paused briefly and shook his head.

"This just won't do, so I believe another test is in order," he went on as the edges of his lips slowly curved upwards to form a rather cruel and sadistic grin, "But fear not, I'll give you a few days to recover and then hopefully, you'll be facing off against more challenging Shadorujā type."

He did know, of course that his plan did have a huge risk. After all, like he had stated, the Shadirā Samoningu Paudā that had been used to summon the Shadirā before had no control over which type showed up. However, the chances of another Papettiā and a group of Marionetto showing up again were exceedingly rare since the same type of Shadirā tended to wait a long while before they made a second attempt. Like the saying, lightning never strikes twice in the same place twice, it was only a rare occurrence for the same type of Shadirā to attack the same place twice, but the possibility still existed and being familiar with the Marionetto, Reigō knew that a second invasion by them would be defeated even easier than the first time.

However, there was also a risk that the group of Shadirā could end up being too strong. Of course, Reigō did know that Aegis or Shishigō, as he knew him as was more than capable of dealing with the Shadorujā, but the problem came when it came to the Shadevā behind them. Shadevā were exceptionally more powerful than the Shadorujā and by Shadevā standards, the Papettiā was by far one of the weakest Shadevā there was. He knew of more powerful Shadevā that made the Papettiā seem like a Shadorujā in comparison and knew that Shishigō stood no chance against them.

"And that's nothing compared to what comes above the Shadevā," he mused to himself with a shudder, "We may end up shoving more into Shishigō's mouth than he can safely chew."

However, after thinking it over, Reigō then shrugged as his expression returned to the sinisterly cruel and sadistic smile he had adorned before.

"But what's life without a few risks?" he went on, laughing as he was confident that Shishigō would find some way to prevail, "I'm sure that you won't let me down, musuko-chan. After all, it's not the first time you've been pitted against stronger opponents and managed to come out on top. If you die, then that would be quite a shame, but should you survive, it'll only prove that I was right about you."

He then threw his head back and let out a rather bone-chilling laugh that would have caused the blood of anyone who would have happened to present to run cold and freeze up and send shivers running up and down their spines as the entire room echoed with his evil laughter. He did not have to contact his clone in Hinamizawa to give him his instructions since Jūgogō already knew what they were through the hive mind that Reigō and all his clones all shared. Jūgogō already knew what his instructions were the moment Reigō had thought them up.

* * *

Meanwhile, Daisuke tensed up while in the classroom of Hinamizawa's school as the members of the Gaming Club had all revealed that they remembered the Shadirā attack the previous day… well, technically it was two days ago since Daisuke had reset the timeline and had rewound everything to twenty-four hours before the attack had occurred. Though he could not recall any past events in which he had reset the timeline, he knew enough about the power to know that the others should not have memories of the attack. Whenever he reset the timeline, everyone's memories of what happened after the point in time he had returned to were wiped and anyone who died were automatically revived with no memories of their death. By all accounts, the Gaming Club members should have had their memories wiped as well and yet, somehow they had managed to retain their memories. Just how this was possible, he just could not explain since, to his knowledge, this had never happened before.

"No, this shouldn't be possible," he thought to himself, shaking his head, "Just how did… how is it that they're immune?"

"Hey, Dai, are you feeling okay?" Keiichi asked as he looked at his friend with a look of concern.

"Daisuke-kun?" Rena asked as she gave him a similar look and looked somewhat worried as Daisuke started to hyperventilate.

"Okay, Dai-chi, calm down," Mion said as she walked over to him and placed her hands on his shoulders and held him down in case he decided to get up and run, "We're just curious, that's all. I mean, it's not every day that human-sized demonic puppets come out of nowhere and attack us and then you somehow summon that mysterious armour that enabled you to go on and kick their assess."

"B-b-b-but how?" Daisuke stuttered, still in disbelief, "You're not supposed to remember. Your memories were supposed to be wiped the moment I reset everything to the past."

"Yeah, I'll admit that that is strange, since no one else seems to remember yesterday's attack," Keiichi said, indicating that he was also at a loss to explain it.

"That was technically two days ago, Keiichi-san," Satoko said as she pointed out Keiichi's mistake, "Remember, Daisuke-san returned everything to the past and it was the previous day and then the Watanagashi Festival came round again and another day has gone by, so technically, it was two days ago."

"Oh yeah, thank you, little miss Know-It-All," Keiichi said in a somewhat insulted tone, not really all that happy at having an eleven-year-old correct him.

"You're welcome," Satoko said boastfully and she placed her hands on her hips, puffed out her chest as if to portray importance and shot Keiichi a tauntingly smug look.

Keiichi just groaned in frustration, knowing that Satoko was just messing with him, but even so, he just could not resist. He was usually the main target for Satoko's many traps, though he had repeatedly stated that they were pranks since they did bear the hallmark of pranks. More often than not, Satoko and Keiichi would end up in a verbal fight as they hurled insults at one another and in truth, it would sometimes come across as an argument between an old married couple arguing out their differences and even though, neither would admit it whenever they were at each other's throats, both of them cared about one another very much and would go out of their way to help one another when the chips were down.

Keiichi may not look like her brother, but he had several traits that reminded her of him and in the past, during their affectionate moments, Satoko had called Keiichi, nī-nī due to those similar traits and from what she heard, when her abusive uncle, Teppei had come back to Hinamizawa to claim her, it had been Keiichi who had successfully rallied everyone together to get the social services to do something, though it had been Rika who had ultimately convinced her to get over her fear of Teppei and stand up to him, but Keiichi still managed to persuade everyone in the village to stand up for her and she was grateful for that.

"Anyway, I'm not sure how we're not affected either," Mion said, bringing Satoko back to reality and defused an argument before it could get underway.

"Search me," Shion said with a shrug, "I'm not sure how we're unaffected either."

"Rena doesn't know either," Rena said in confusion and then looked towards Daisuke with a hopeful look in her eyes as if wondering if he had an answer.

"Huh, you mean you guys aren't sure how you're immune to my Return to the Past System?" he said as he noticed Rena's look, "I'm not sure either and by all accounts, it should be impossible."

"Huh?" everyone said in unison as they gave Daisuke stunned looks and then Mion gave him a rather stern look.

"Okay, Dai-chan, I think it's about time that you explain yourself," she said in a serious and somewhat demanding tone, "I know that everyone's entitled to their own secrets and all, but when those puppet things attacked, you were decked in that armour and you even defeated their leader. I think your secret's out in the open and since we're apparently immune to your time-reset or whatever it's called, we deserve an explanation since who knows when those things may attack again."

Daisuke then let out a rather defeated sigh as he knew that Mion had a point. They had seen him transform and since they were immune to his Return to the Past System, it would be useless trying to hide it from them, plus Mion did have a point. The Shadirā had attacked once and since they attacked, there was the possibility that they would attack again and with that in mind, he decided that he had best come clean about what he knew, not just about his armour, but about the Shadirā as well since if they did attack again, then the Gaming Club had a right to know about the beings that were attacking their home. After all, he knew that everyone was entitled to their secrets, but that there were also things that just had to come out into the open since keeping some secrets could end up causing a disaster.

"Look, we can understand if you don't want to talk about it," Mion went on with a sigh as her look softened, "And I understand that with your time-reset thingy , you were probably counting on us having our memories wiped and you'd have been able to preserve your secret and I'll admit, I can live with that. After all, there are secrets that all of us would have preferred to keep to ourselves but couldn't due to unforeseen circumstances. If I had the power to reset time, I would've used it to go back in time and preserve my secrets as well, but if there's anything I've learned throughout my life is that some things just can't be kept secret."

Everyone else nodded, including Daisuke as he understood what she meant.

"Look, Dai, I don't know why we're immune to whatever it is you did and if we weren't, that would be okay," Keiichi went on, picking up where Mion left off, "I remember a time when I did things that, when I look back on, I'm not particularly proud of and with a power like yours, I'd go back and change things…"

"I think what we're all trying to say is that if we weren't immune to that time-reset or whatever it's called, we'd be okay since it's a secret that you don't want to talk about," Rika spoke up with a surprising understanding that most people her age would sorely lack, "You're entitled to your secrets and it's natural that you'd do whatever it took to keep them secret. However, for reasons that we don't know, we're somehow immune to your time-reset ability and since we saw what you did, it would be pointless not to tell us."

"Yeah, there is that and Rena-san and Mion-san did share some of their secrets with me, so it's only fair that I return the favour," Daisuke said with an understanding nod.

"Daisuke-kun, it's not like we're asking you to tell the whole village," Rena said in a sad tone as she felt incredibly guilty that Daisuke had been forced into this situation.

She could see that it was something he did not want to talk about and unlike her, he did not have the option to maintain his silence and she knew that that probably irked him and it did not seem all that fair. When Daisuke had inquired about Satoshi, he had given her the option to maintain her silence and yet, now the tables were turned and unfortunately due to the circumstances of the situation, they could not afford to give Daisuke that same option and it upset her. Despite the situation, Rena still felt horrible; that she was being ungrateful.

Daisuke nodded as he sighed.

"Okay, I understand, since you guys are immune to the Return to the Past System, this is something that you must know since I can't hide it, I have to tell you," he said before pausing briefly as if considering something and then nodded, "Okay, you guys found me about a month ago after I stumbled out onto the road after somehow managing to escape the Onigafuchi Swamp."

Shion could not help but flinch as she remembered that she had practically crashed into him since she had gotten so caught up in her own excitement over the possibility of Mion becoming her servant for a week that she had taken her eyes off the road to taunt her and had not noticed Daisuke till it was too late and despite veering to try and avoid him, Daisuke had moved to try and avoid her, but she had veered in the same direction and their collision had become inevitable.

"And when I woke up, I couldn't remember anything about myself aside from my given name," Daisuke went on as he gave everyone a rather sincere look that left no doubt in their minds that what he was about to say was the truth, "That much is true, I am an amnesic and I have no memories prior to waking up in the Onigafuchi Swamp. Heck, I still don't."

"Yeah, I'll say," Mion said with a nod as she remembered that after transforming and rescuing them, Daisuke had looked confused, like he had no idea what had just happened and not only that, but Daisuke had even admitted at much; that he could not remember anything about the past, but the knowledge he had attained had become available to him, "And you called yourself a Kamen Rider and what was it you referred to those puppets… Shadiga, Shadika… or something like that."

"Shadirā," Daisuke corrected with a nod, "Those demons are a species known as the Shadirā, a play off the English word, Shadow and the katakana spelling and Japanese pronunciation of the English word, Killer, Kirā."

Unbeknownst to everyone else aside from Rika, Hanyū's eyes widened in horror at hearing the name, making it clear that she recognised the name and Rika shot her a confused look, but Hanyū just silently nodded her head in Daisuke's direction, motioning for Rika to listen to what Daisuke had to say.

"Shadirā, what the heck is that?" Keiichi asked rather stupidly.

"They're the demonic puppets that attacked the Watanagashi Festival, obviously," Satoko said in frustrated annoyance, unable to believe that the older boy would ask such a stupid question, "Sometimes I find it hard to believe that you're a genius, Keiichi-san."

"You take that back," Keiichi demanded as he glared at Satoko, "And Shadirā, that name's stupid. Whoever thought it up must have really had a lame definition of cool."

"Well, lame name or not, that's what they're called," Rena said as she nodded towards Daisuke, telling him to continue and then shot a brief glare in Keiichi's direction.

"Er, right," Daisuke said with looking at Keiichi, unsure what to make of his declaration before continuing on with his explanation, "Anyway, Shadirā come in different shapes and forms and are given classifications depending on their strength. For example, the puppet-like Shadirā that attacked the Watanagashi Festival, the Marionetto; they are nothing more than foot soldiers, the Shadorujā."

"And let me guess, the words are a play off the English word, Shadow and the Japanese pronunciation of the English word, Soldier," Mion said as she took in what Daisuke said and Daisuke nodded.

"And that weird spectre thingy must have been their leader," Rena added with a nod and again, Daisuke nodded.

"A Shadevā, which is a play off the words, Shadow and Evolution," he said as he continued to explain, "And that one was called a Papettiā. Shadevā function as commanders and each Shadevā type commands a specific Shadorujā type, like the Papettiā Shadevā governs the Marionetto Shadorujā."

"Hold on there, Daisuke-san, but from the way you're talking, it's like there're more than one of those Papettiā monsters," Satoko said, feeling a bit scared since she had initially believed that the Papettiā had been one of a kind.

"Yes, that's correct," Daisuke said, confirming her suspicions, "There are more Papettiā out there. That was just one and also, the Marionetto are just one type of Shadorujā, there are others."

The Gaming Club members could not help but shudder as they learned this; that the demons that had attacked the Watanagashi Festival were only one type of a species.

"And is there any level above Shadevā?" Mion asked curiously.

"Hai, though for some reason, I can't seem to remember what they're called," Daisuke said with a nod and then clenched his eyes as he tried to recall what the level above Shadevā was.

"Shadenperā," Hanyū whispered to herself, though Rika managed to hear and gave her ancestor an inquiring look.

As for Daisuke, try as he might, he could not remember the name of the Shadirā that were above Shadevā. All he knew was that they existed and if the Shadevā were the commanders of the Shadorujā, then the level above them, the Shadenperā, as Hanyū had stated were undoubtedly the generals and despite not having his memories, Daisuke could not help but shudder as he recalled that they were definitely more powerful than he was. To face off against one right now, with the current level of strength he possessed would undoubtedly be suicide.

"Hey, don't burn your brain out," Keiichi said as he watched Daisuke trying to recall the name.

"I can't seem to recall what they're called," Daisuke said with a sigh as he shook his head, "However, all I know is that they act as the generals behind the Shadevā and are immensely powerful. Heck, if one attacked right now, we'd all be pretty much screwed since even with my Kamen Rider powers; as it stands at the moment, I'm not match for even the weakest of them."

Everyone gulped fearfully as they all felt chills run up and down their spines as they all involuntarily shuddered. That was quite a terrifying thought; that even with his power as Aegis that even the weakest of the Shadenperā could easily mop the floor with Daisuke.

"But don't worry, though," Daisuke said as he sensed their fear, "Those Shadirā very rarely level Dāku Shadō Wārudo, the world in which the Shadirā reside."

He could not really explain it, but even as he spoke, more and more knowledge came flooding into his mind as he found himself recalling more and more about the Shadirā. He knew the name of their world and what the Shadenperā were, but he still could not recall their name and neither did he remember just how or where he had come to receive this knowledge. That was still a blank to him.

"So you remember the Shadirā?" Mion summarised with a nod, "But you don't remember how you came to know of them."

"That's correct," Daisuke confirmed with a nod, "And I'm sure there are still facts about the Shadirā that I'm missing."

"Okay then, Dai-chan," Mion replied with a satisfied nod, "Now, what about that armour you were wearing? I remember you calling yourself, a Kamen Rider, just what is that?"

Daisuke sighed as he once again tried to recall details on exactly what a Kamen Rider was and then more knowledge flooded his brain.

"I'm not exactly sure what a Kamen Rider actually is, but I seem to have a vague memory on how they're seen as warriors that fight for peace and justice," he said, straining his mind as he tried to recall more of what he knew, "I believe that they're also addressed as Kaizō Ningen, a super-powered cyborg."

"Wait, so you're a cyborg?" Keiichi said as his eyes almost bulged out his head in complete disbelief.

"I suppose so," Daisuke summarised with a nod, "Though to be perfectly honest with you, I never really knew that until two days ago."

"Well, it would definitely explain you managed to free yourself from the Onigafuchi Swamp," Mion said since she knew that no one who had gotten trapped in the Onigafuchi Swamp in the past had ever managed to come out again and yet Daisuke had somehow managed it, "Your cybernetic implants must have enhanced your strength to well beyond the limitations of ordinary humans."

Daisuke nodded.

"I suppose so," he said with a sigh, "Anyway, it wasn't till we had fallen victim to the Marionetto's Immobilisation Warcry that I was bracing myself for the end when, all of a sudden, I had a memory flash to when I was about Rika-chan, Satoko-san and Hanyū-chan's age and I was staring down a group of Shadorujā that looked a bit like dogs, though I can't remember their actual name and then I transformed before I was brought back to the present and I somehow managed to free myself despite the strings' paralysing effect and copied what my younger self did and that's when I transformed. Of course, I didn't realise it until after I had rescued you, Mion-san, Rena-san when you brought it up and I noticed that I was seeing the world in different shades of red."

"Wait; hold up, when you were Rika-chama's age," Shion said in shocked disbelief, "You mean that you were only a kid when you got those powers?"

"I'm not really sure when, where or how I got those powers, but yeah, I suppose that I must have gotten them when I was just a kid," Daisuke admitted as he thought it over.

"I'd really hate to know what sort of people your parents were if they sold their son to become some lab rat," Mion said with fury in her voice as she had to wonder what kind of people would do such a thing to their own child.

"Well, in the beginning, I thought that perhaps I had run away from home and given the state that you had found me in, I must've been on the run for quite some time," Daisuke explained as he remembered thinking about his predicament before Mion had inducted him into the club, "And I was badly disappointed when no one answered that police report that Kei's ryōshin filed. I then suddenly started to wonder if perhaps my ryōshin didn't care that I was gone and that perhaps I was either an unwanted pregnancy or maybe I just didn't live up to my ryōshin's standards and they believed that they were better off without me or perhaps I was probably undisciplined and disruptive to my ryōshin that they eventually gave up or trying to raise."

"Maybe that is indeed the case," Mion said with fury still evident in her voice, "It would definitely explain why you're a cyborg. Maybe that's why they sold you off to some whackjob scientist; so they can be rid of you."

"Hold on, Mī-chan, aren't you being a bit too hasty?" Rena said, surprised by her friend's fury, "We don't know that for sure. You're just jumping to conclusions."

"I have to agree with Rena, Mion," Keiichi said as he gave her a stare, "We honestly don't know how he became a cyborg. He could've been an orphan for all we know."

Daisuke frowned at this, not happy that Keiichi had pointed out that possibility, but he had to admit that it could indeed be possible, which was why he did not protest.

"Or his ryōshin could've been murdered and he was taken against his will," Shion suggested, causing Daisuke to wince as he did not like hearing that possibility either.

"I think you're upsetting him," Rena said as she glared at both Keiichi and Shion after noticing that Daisuke was looking upset.

"Huh?" both Keiichi and Shion as they turned their attention towards Daisuke, who did indeed, look upset.

"Gomenasai, Dai-chan," Shion apologised, realising that she had indeed upset her friend.

"Gomenasai, Dai," Keiichi said, voicing his own apology as he felt the same as Shion.

"It's alright," Daisuke said with a sigh, shaking his head, "As upsetting as it is to hear, those are pretty valid possibilities. Heck, I even considered the possibility that my ryōshin had thrown me out of their house and left me to fend for myself."

Mion sighed as she brought her hands up to her temples and massaged them. She had to admit that Rena was right; she had jumped to conclusions, but after coming to the revelation that Daisuke was indeed a cyborg with superhuman powers and given his age and listening to Daisuke as he recounted how he had been Rika, Satoko and Hanyū's age when he transformed, the possibility that Daisuke's parents could have sold their son to some mad scientist for scientific experimentation filled her with such uncharacteristic fury that she had been blinded to all other possibilities. Even if they had not wanted Daisuke or wanted him gone for whatever reason, to give him up and turn him over to become a human guinea pig in some sort of twisted science experiment… for any parent to do that to their own child; it was monstrous. If that did indeed, turn out to be the case, then Mion hoped that she would never ever have to meet his parents because with the fury she felt, she would easily attack them on sight and introduce them to the Sonozaki Torture Chamber where she would slowly torture them to death in such a way that would insure that they remained alive for as long as possible.

"But if you're a cyborg and since we found you in a really unhealthy state, perhaps you escaped for somewhere," Shion said as a realisation washed over her and upon hearing this, the others' eyes widened as they came to the same realisation.

"You know, I never really thought of that," Daisuke said as his own eyes widened as he came to that realisation and upon thinking it over he could not help but tremble with fear as upon realisation that he may have escaped from somewhere, he got the terrifyingly chilling notion that it was true.

"Daisuke-kun, are you alright?" Rena asked in concern as Daisuke's mind appeared to have shut down and he was operating on auto-pilot as he continued to tremble and then started to shake his head and hyperventilate, all at the same time.

"Hey, Dai, calm down, man," Keiichi said as Daisuke suddenly stood up and then backed into a corner before curling up in a fetal position.

"Dai-chan!" Mion said in alarm as she hurriedly went over to him and started shaking him, "Hey, Dai-chan, snap out of it, you're fine!"

"I e-e-escaped for s-somewhere?" Daisuke said to himself in a terrified tone, making no indication that he had heard Mion or even acknowledge that she had shaken him, "Did I escape from somewhere? Where did I come from? Who am I? What am I?"

Those thoughts passed through his head as he continued to tremble. Just what was he and what was his purpose? He knew that he had to have been transformed into a cyborg for a reason, but he could not recall what that reason was and then, another frightening thought entered his mind. What if he had been made into a cyborg for the purposes of destruction? What if he was meant to destroy things and kill people? He could not image himself doing such things and the possibility that he had been created to destroy and kill filled him with a feeling of cold, hard dread as he could not help but wonder just what he had done in the past and remembering back to the Watanagashi Festival before the Shadirā attack during his encounter with Yūkimoto, all of a sudden, Yūkimoto's statement about how he had probably done something horrible in the past himself and had his own share of skeletons in the closet after he had recounted most of his friends' deepest, darkest secrets, sounded all the more chilling and damning.

"What if, I'm really a monster?" he said aloud, causing everyone to stop and look at him in shock.

"Hey, snap out of it!" Keiichi said as, upon recovering from his shock, he walked over to Daisuke, yanked him up by his collar and then delivered a really hard punch to his face.

"Kei-chan!" Mion said in shock, unable to believe what Keiichi had done.

"Gomen, but it was the only way to snap him out of it," Keiichi apologised as he scratched the back of his head and let out a nervous laugh.

"That hurt," Daisuke said as he stood up and glared at Keiichi, "Jeez, Kei, couldn't you have done something a lot less painful?"

"Gomen, Dai, but I couldn't find any other way," Keiichi apologised, this time to the boy that he had punched.

"I suppose you're right," Daisuke said with a sigh, "It's not like you did permanent damage or anything."

He then sighed as he started walking towards the door.

"Hold on, Dai-chan, just where do you think you're going?" Mion said in surprise.

"Huh, why are you asking?" Daisuke said in confusion, "I'm leaving."

"What, leaving?" Keiichi said in surprise.

"Yep, I'm leaving Hinamizawa," Daisuke said causing the others' eyes to widen in shock, surprise and disbelief.

"Daisuke-kun, why?" Rena said, feeling really upset.

Daisuke sighed as he shook his head.

"Well, for one thing, I'm a cyborg, I have superhuman powers, and I can take on demons no problem, "Daisuke recited simply, "Why would any of you want anything to do with me anymore? I'm a freak."

"No, that's not true," Mion said, shaking her head, "You're not a freak. Rena and I both owe you our lives, in case you've forgotten."

She remembered that back during the Marionetto's invasion that both she and Rena had been with Daisuke when they had fallen victim to the Marionetto's Immobilisation Warcry and it had been Daisuke who had saved them.

"That's right, Rena doesn't want Daisuke-kun to go," Rena said as tears started to form in her eyes, "Please don't go, Daisuke-kun."

"But aren't you all afraid of me?" Daisuke asked, fearfully as he looked at the others warily, "Come on, I have superhuman powers that one would expect to find in an action movie; not real life. I bet none of you have seen anything like this before and now that you have, it's natural that you're afraid. History has shown that mankind always fears what it doesn't understand. Surely you're all afraid of me. I mean, what if I use that power against you? Isn't that what people normally ask themselves?"

The club members all looked at one another as they took in what Daisuke had just said and then Mion turned to face him with an unreadable expression on her face. Daisuke sighed, believing that she was going to demand that he leave and turned to leave, but was surprised when he felt a hand clamp down on his wrist and he turned to find that the hand belonged to Mion as she and the others walked towards him.

"Listen, Dai-chan," Mion said as she shot him a look that told him not to speak until she was finished, "You do bring up valid points, but you know what, we don't care. You're our friend. So you have mysterious unexplained powers, so what? That doesn't mean you're an evil monster hell-bent on destroying the world."

"But what if that's what I really am?" Daisuke asked as he trembled fearfully at the thought, "I have amnesia, remember? What if my real personality is that of a ruthless, heartless and sadistic monster? I just know that I was turned into a cyborg for a reason and I can't help but fear that I was meant to destroy things and kill people."

"That's not true," Rena said in protest.

"How can you be sure?" Daisuke asked as he shot the Gaming Club a stern look, "Even I'm not sure about that. Before the Shadirā attack, I didn't even know I was a cyborg and now that I discover that I am one, there is a possibility that whoever did this to me had destructive intentions in mind."

"Possibly, but we don't know that for sure," Mion said as she admitted that Daisuke did have a point, "However, you've been with us for the past month and I'm sure if your real personality was as monstrous as your fear is hyping it up to be, then there would have been hints of it showing by now. I'm no psychologist and I won't pretend I understand how amnesia works, but if you were really a cold-hearted killer and not a nice person, those traits would be buried deep in your subconscious and would probably surface from time to time and so far, we haven't seen anything that suggests that that is the case. Besides, like I said before, you saved Rena and me. If you really were not an nice person, I'm sure you would have gone off and left us."

Daisuke took a moment to think this over and had to admit that Mion did have a point, or was he just fooling himself? Mion could be wrong in her assumption for all he knew and was simply grasping straws, but then he realised that the Gaming Club did not want him to leave despite what he had believed. He had thought that they would want nothing to do with him now that they knew his secret and would grow to fear him because of his power and that they would view him as a freak, but looking into the eyes of each individual member, he saw that that was not the case. Each member still liked and appreciated him, especially Rena, whom he had to admit he spent more time with than anyone else.

During his month-long stay, he had gotten to know each individual member of the Gaming Club quite well, but Rena was the one he spent the most time with. He had gotten to know her pretty well and had long since gotten used to her strangeness to the point where he no longer considered her strange traits strange. Whenever the others were occupied, Rena seemed to be the only one who had free time on her hands and so, they both spent much of their free time together, going "treasure hunting" or simply just talking and Daisuke remembered that he had once taken her to Angel Mort in Okinomiya where they had encountered Shion, who worked there as an after-school job. Anyway, thinking back over the time he spent with Rena, he felt his heart beat increasing as a faint blush appeared on his cheeks as he remembered the times in which they were both really close to one another.

"Look, so you have superpowers, so what?" Keiichi said dismissively in an uncaring tone, "It's not like the whole village knows."

"Yeah, and besides, you did save the village, so we're in your debt," Shion added with a nod.

"Please, Daisuke-kun, don't go," Rena pleaded as the tears threatened to run down her cheeks.

"Yeah, don't go, it just won't be the same without you," Mion spoke up, adding in her two cents, "We've gotten so used to you that if you leave, it'll feel rather empty and besides, what if those Shadirā things attack again?"

Daisuke thought it over and seeing the hopeful looks of the Gaming Club members, he then smiled and nodded as he decided that he would stay. Sure, he still had fears, but at the moment, he decided that they did not matter. What really mattered was the here and now and not frightening what-if scenarios. Should his past catch up with him, he would cross that bridge when he came to it. Right now, he had friends who, despite knowing his secret still wanted his company and he suddenly realised that he was not alone anymore and that he did not want to be alone anymore.

"Okay, I'll stay," he said with a nod and Rena's face lit up and brightened considerably.

"Yeah, Daisuke-kun's staying," she said excitedly in celebration.

"But are you all sure?" he said, making it known that there was still a trace of wariness lingering inside him.

"Of course we're sure," Mion said in assurance, "Don't let your powers get you down. That doesn't matter. A person is defined by the choices they make; not by his or her abilities or traits. If I hated you because of your power, then the club probably would never have existed since I probably would have joined in on persecuting Satoshi and Satoko after the Dam War."

Daisuke smiled with a nod as he had to admit that Mion had a point, but before he could elaborate, he suddenly realised something that he never realised before.

"Hey, hold up, what's going on?" he said as he looked around in confusion.

"Huh, what do you mean, Daisuke-kun?" Rena said, looking at him in confusion.

"I remember the Watanagashi Festival the first time round," Daisuke started to explain, "You know, before the Shadirā attacked. Didn't Yūkimoto ruin our good mood and bring up everyone's secrets?"

"Huh, when was that?" Mion said as she shook her head, "We did see Yūkimoto at the Watanagashi Festival, but we avoided him, didn't we?"

"Hai, but that was the second time," Daisuke said simply in disbelief as he knew that they should all have still been reeling from their encounter with Yūkimoto despite everything.

"Nope, I think we avoided him both times," Keiichi said, shaking his head, "Unless of course, your time-reset ability only partially worked and we're not as immune to it as we originally thought."

Daisuke's eyes widened for a moment, but then he just sighed and nodded as he decided that Keiichi must indeed be correct and to be honest, he found himself glad for that because he remembered how Satoko had been after Yūkimoto revealed that she had killed her parents… well, to Yūkimoto it was probably just an assumption based off conflicting accounts in which Satoko had claimed she had been asleep in her parents' car nearby, but an eyewitness claimed that she had been in the company of her parents before their deaths, but judging from the way Satoko had suffered an emotional breakdown and what she said, Daisuke found himself believing Yūkimoto in his accusation, but since he did not know the full story and remembering what Satoko had said, he decided to believe that it had just been a tragic accident and not a deliberate act like Yūkimoto was hyping it up to be.

* * *

Later, everyone was on their way on as it was time to go home. However, Daisuke remained where he was as he folded his arms.

"Hey, Shion-san, I was wondering, would you mind staying behind for a bit, I'd like to talk to you for a bit," he said as he looked at Shion questioningly.

"Huh, what is it Dai-chan?" Shion asked curiously, wondering just what Daisuke wanted to see her about.

Mion gave Daisuke a surprised look as she realised what he wanted to ask her sister about; surprised that he was going to confront her so soon after confronting her, but then sighed and gave him a hopeful look.

"Huh, what do you want to see Shī-chan about?" Rena asked as she shot Shion a bit of a glare, indicating that she was feeling somewhat jealous that Daisuke wanted to be in the company of another girl.

"Oh, don't worry, this won't take long… at least I hope it won't take long," Daisuke said nervously upon noticing the look in Rena's eyes.

"It'd better not," he could have sworn he heard Rena mumble under her breath, but then Rena just burst into a bright beaming smile.

"Okay, Daisuke-kun, Rena believes you," she said aloud, "She'll be waiting for you outside."

"Okay then," Daisuke said with a nod as the others all started filing out of the classroom.

"You know something about the Shadirā, don't you, Hanyū?" Rika whispered to Hanyū as they left and thankfully, no one heard her, "I noticed your reaction when Daisuke mentioned the name."

"Au-au-au!" Hanyū said in with a grimace, "You weren't supposed to see that."

"Seems Daisuke's not the only one that has some explaining to do," Rika whispered with a grin on her face that caused Hanyū to shiver nervously.

Anyway, once everyone else had left, Shion checked to see if they were out of earshot, knowing that whatever it was Daisuke wanted to talk about; he did not want the others listening in.

"Okay, Dai-chan, they're gone," Shion said as she turned back to face him, "Now, what is it that you want to talk to me about?"

"Hōjō Satoshi," Daisuke said simply and Shion's eyes widened in shock, surprised that Daisuke knew about Satoshi, "I overheard you and your shimai mentioning him during your argument when I first woke up and Rena-san and Mion-san both told me bits and pieces, but they both said that you were in love with him, is that correct?"

Shion nodded, but remained silent as she still had not recovered from her shock.

"I know that Satoshi-san is Satoko-san's ani and that their ryōshin were supporters of a dam project that was abandoned six years ago," Daisuke said as he explained what he knew, "Afterwards, Hōjō-san and his tsuma were both persecuted and denounced as traitors along with their kodomo and that four years ago, Hōjō-san and his tsuma both fell to their deaths in a river while in Shirakawa Park during the Watanagashi Festival and that Satoshi-san and Satoko-san both went to live with Hōjō-san's otōto, Hōjō Teppei and his tsuma, Tamae, who were both abusive towards them. I also know that Mion-san was told by your sobo not to interfere in the villagers' treatment of them and so, she exercised what little power she had and established the school as a safe zone and formed the club to keep both Satoshi-san and Satoko-san away from their oji and oba for as long as possible, but then, two years ago, Tamae was murdered and Satoshi-san disappeared I also know about the kidnapping of Inukai-daijin's mago along with the death of the Dam Construction Manager and how all but one of his killers turned themselves in and also the mysterious circumstances surrounding Rika-chan's ryōshin and how along with the Hōjōs, they're part or a series of contrived coincidences that many people associated with the local Shrine God, Oyashiro-sama."

Shion nodded with a sigh as she shook her head.

"Hai, that's all true, every word of it," she said with a shudder, "And I'm guessing that you want my side of the story, don't you?"

Daisuke nodded.

"Of course, if you'd rather not talk about it, it's okay," he said, giving Shion the same option as he gave Rena and Mion before her, "Unlike me, this is something that you can choose to tell me about."

Shion chuckled and gave Daisuke an appreciative look.

"Arigatō, Dai-chan, and Gomenasai," she said as she gave him a guilty look, "Gomenasai. You had to reveal your secrets, so I think that it's only fair that I share mine."

"Now hold on," Daisuke said as he unfolded his arms and raised his hands up, "That was different. The circumstances of that situation forced me to come clean. You don't have to tell me anything if you don't want to. Heck, when talking with your shimai, I got the distinct impression that there were a few things that she was not completely honest about and Rena-san gave hints into her past that she told me straight that she didn't want to talk about."

Shion nodded in understanding and smiled.

"Okay, however, if you want to understand me and Satoshi-kun, then it goes way back to when Mion and I were born," she said and Daisuke opened his mouth, but then closed it, realising that, like with Mion, Shion was going to give him information that would help him understand the situation better, "I know you're probably wondering why I'm going to recount my life's story, but…"

"It'll help me understand the situation better," Daisuke finished for her, "I understand, Mion-san said the same thing when she went into detail about the Dam Construction Manager."

"Right," Shion said with a nod, "Anyway, when it comes to the Sonozaki Family, they have a tradition going back generations. You see, normally when futago are born, as tradition goes, the wakai futago is usually strangled to death before their first bath."

"Say what?" Daisuke said in surprise as his eyes widened in shocked disbelief.

"Un huh, that's right," Shion went on with a nod as her expression became rather grim, "You see, it is believed that the wakai futago is a demon child and would bring the family bad luck and it falls upon the Head of the Family to do the deed. However, for whatever reason, Oni-baba couldn't bring herself to do it and so, the wakai futago was spared."

Daisuke nodded as he remembered Mion telling him that despite her cold exterior, Oryō was actually quite a nice person once one got to know her. He could believe that she would hesitate in killing one of her granddaughters and it was clear to him that Shion was referring to herself when she mentioned the wakai futago or younger twin. It did explain why Shion and Oryō never saw eye to eye.

"Anyway," Shion went on, bringing him back to reality, "Oni-baba couldn't do it and the wakai futago was spared. However, that did not mean that she got first-class treatment. In fact she was looked down upon with derision and distain and treated like garbage. Many in the family saw her as a mistake and had any of them been the Head of the Family, she would not be around today."

Daisuke nodded, though he had to wonder why she was addressing herself as if she were talking about someone else and he could also detect a lot of pent-up bitterness and resentment as she spoke.

"One day though, the wakai futago offered her ane to take her aneki's place since she felt that it was unfair that only one of them attended family meetings and the furui futago agreed and they did this regularly," Shion went on as the bitterness subsided in her voice for the moment, "However, one day while switching places, the wakai futago was branded with the mark that signifies the next in line to inherit the title of Head of the Family, an oni tattoo on her back and so, we both found our positions switched."

Daisuke's eyes widened in shock and disbelief as he heard this.

"Hold on, you mean that…" he started to say.

"Yes, I am the furui futago and was born, Mion and Mion's really the real Shion and the wakai futago," Shion said, confirming his suspicions, "We found our positions permanently switched. However, it was unintentional. That time we switched, neither of us knew that Mion, then Shion would be branded with the oni tattoo. It was an accident, though I remember that imōto panicked and fled afterwards and so, I went out to look for her and when I found her, she panicked and thought I was intending to kill her."

Daisuke listened as he thought things over, this was indeed a shocking revelation; that Mion and Shion where actually Shion and Mion; the current Mion was really Shion and the current Shion was really Mion. However, through observing the twins, he could tell that they were close despite Shion's constant teasing of her sister. Sure, Mion may act as if she hated her sister at times, but Daisuke knew that once push came to shove, Mion would be there for Shion and vice versa. He knew that if anyone harmed one of the twins, then the other would come to their aid and make the poor sap sorry he or she messed with her sister.

"However, I just comforted her and brought her home," Shion went on, unaware of Daisuke's thoughts, "However, since I was now Shion, I was the one who got the blame for it and when Mion tried standing up for me, Oni-baba struck her and lashed out at her for daring to stand up for me."

The bitterness in her tone returned and Daisuke shuddered as it soon became clear that Shion absolutely detested her grandmother with a passion, though he was a bit surprised that Oryō had actually struck Mion because she had came to her sister's defence, but he did remember that Mion stated that Oryō only acted the way she did for the sake of appearances and because there were those within the Sonozaki Family who would have sought to undermine her leadership if she did not act the way she was expected to and another realisation washed over him; that perhaps the main reason that those in the Sonozaki Family who were unhappy at her leadership were unhappy because she had spared Mion, then Shion when she was just a child. However, looking at Shion and seeing the amount of hatred in her eyes, it was clear that she did not believe any of what Mion had told him and believed that her grandmother genuinely hated her.

"Anyway, I was now Shion for life," Shion went on with the bitterness still in her voice, "And to make matters worse, both Mion and I had to practically brainwash ourselves to avoid detection, since if we had gotten caught, tradition would have dictated that we both got punished and I shudder to think of what they would have done to Mion if they discovered that she was really Shion. I believe they may have killed her if our secret had gotten out and so, with that in mind, you will not speak of this outside this room, is that clear?"

She then shot Daisuke a very critical glare that promised drastic consequences if he did not comply.

"I'll admit that I do have some pent-up resentment towards Mion since, accidentally or not, she stole my position," Shion went on as he glare intensified, "But she's still my imōto and my love for her outshines my resentment and I'll be dead before I let those extremist Sonozaki yahoos sink their claws into my imōto-chan."

Daisuke gulped as he nodded and knew that Shion was deadly serious. She would indeed do whatever it took to defend her sister; even if that meant resorting to murder. If Mion was ever in danger, then she would fight to protect her and she did not care who it was. Heck, looking at Shion right now, he would not be surprised if even the Shadirā ended up cowering in fear. Shion looked that dangerous and for a moment, Daisuke was suddenly reminded of Rena whenever she got angry since he knew that whenever Rena got angry, she could get downright frightening and in the past, Daisuke recalling fearing that she would end up killing someone. Shion was the same right at this moment, though Daisuke could not help but tremble as the feeling he got from her was far more alarming than the feeling he got whenever Rena got angry. There was definitely something frightening about Shion whenever she got angry and it was more frightening than Rena's. He knew that Shion could potentially become more dangerous than even Rena if she was pushed too far.

"Right, I got it, crystal clear," Daisuke said as he formed and O with his thumb and index fingers and held it in front of himself.

Shion calmed down considerably as she nodded.

"Good," she said with a satisfactory smile, "Anyway, we stayed with each other for a time, but then, I was sent away to St. Lucia Gakuen so the Sonozaki Family could have me out of the way."

"I see," Daisuke said with a nod as he recalled Yūkimoto mentioning that as he was recounting each of the Gaming Club members' pasts.

"And I absolutely hated it there," Shion went on, her tone filled with bitterness once again, "It was nothing more than a ladies manufacturing factory and I was constantly on the wrong side of most of the administration since I was constantly pulled up a lot for various misdemeanours. However, I finally managed to escape with some help from Kasai Tatsuyoshi, a bodyguard that the Sonozaki Family assigned to take care of me."

"Just how did you escape?" Daisuke asked curiously.

"Well, basically I studied the school's security systems, the guard schedules and the behaviours of the administration to the point where I managed to propagate a rumour flying around that I was having an affair with one of the male faculty members to my advantage and once I escaped, I made for Okinomiya where my ojisan, Yoshirō, one of those few who didn't detest my existence was able to get me a job at Angel Mort since he owns the establishment."

"I see," Daisuke said with a nod.

"Unfortunately, it was not really as simple as that," Shion went on as she looked down at the floor, looking slightly depressed, but then she looked back up at Daisuke, "Since I was supposed to be at St. Lucia, there was the possibility that I could be noticed by the Sonozaki Family and so, while discussing it over with Yoshirō-ojisan, I told him to tell the family that should I be seen that he was employing Mion instead."

Daisuke nodded as he listened, absorbing everything Shion was telling him.

"And what about Mion-san?" he asked curiously, "Did you run this by her?"

"Hai, I did," Shion said with a nod, "And she agreed to cover for me, but unfortunately, Oni-baba discovered that I had escaped. I'm guessing that the administration staff must've contacted her and informed her of my escape."

"Makes sense," Daisuke commented with a nod.

"Yeah, and so, I had to disguise myself as Mion to avoid detection," Shion went on and then suddenly she had a really dreamy look in her eyes, "And it was during that time that I met Satoshi-kun."

"I see, so it was love at first-sight, then?" Daisuke asked curiously.

"Not exactly," Shion responded, shaking her head, "I was having a really bad day and was on my way back to my apartment with the day's shopping and while I passed by a line of motorbikes, one of my bags got caught on the side of one of the motorbikes and its contents spilled out onto the street and so, in anger, I kicked the motorbike, but unfortunately, this caused a domino effect and the other two parked beside it fell over as well and to make matters worse, their owners had saw everything and weren't too happy. I was about to get out my taser to defend myself, but then Satoshi-kun showed up and saved me."

"I see, so he rescued you," Daisuke said as he absorbed what Shion had just said.

"However, at first, I wasn't in love with him," Shion confessed with a sigh, "I originally thought that he was just an interesting boy that I could amuse myself with and use relieve my boredom, but then that quickly changed when he patted me on the head. I was quite taken by his warm and gentle touch and all of a sudden, as if someone had waved a magic wand, I was madly in love with him."

"Or maybe Cupid just pierced you with an arrow," Daisuke joked with a laugh.

"I suppose there is that as well," Shion laughed as she got Daisuke's joke, but then she calmed down and continued with her story, "After meeting Satoshi-kun and falling in love with him, I convinced Mion to swap places with me so I could get to know Satoshi-kun better. Of course, I knew that he was Hōjō-san's mamamusuko and that the village viewed him as a traitor along with his gifu, but I didn't care. Satoshi-kun had nothing to do with the dam and as far as I was concerned, the villagers were all stupid idiots who just wanted someone to take their anger out on just so they could feel good about themselves."

The bitterness in her tone had returned and Daisuke could not help but shudder as he saw hatred in Shion's eyes as she thought about the past.

"I learned a lot about Satoshi-kun," Shion went on with a sigh, "I learned that he and his shimai, Satoko were living with their abusive oji and oba and that because of the abuse, Satoshi-kun had his share of problems and was under a lot of stress. However, Rena was the one who gave me the run down and with each of Satoshi-kun's problems, Satoko's name kept popping up and I learned that Satoko was really dependant on her ani a lot, which probably added to the stress and I have to confess, I didn't always like Satoko. In fact, at first, I downright hated her."

Daisuke's eyes widened in shock as he took in Shion's confession. He had seen Shion and Satoko interact in the past and from what he could tell, they were pretty close. It was almost as if they were real siblings and he had heard Satoko address Shion as, nē-nē on occasion and Shion was rather protective of Satoko. He had seen it in the past whenever Keiichi had fallen victim to one of Satoko's many traps in which Keiichi would get mad and he and Satoko would get into a verbal spat. However, he did notice that Shion had been glaring at Keiichi during those verbal spats; like she was warning him not to go too far and looking into her eyes, he knew that Shion would have definitely acted without hesitation if Keiichi ended up going too far and hurt Satoko; not that he would since he knew where the line was drawn, but Shion seemed to act as a constant reminder and Daisuke recalled that Keiichi had confessed to him that he was aware of Shion's glares and Keiichi told him of a time in which Shion even tried resorting to murder in order to protect Satoko, though he did not go into details about that incident. All Keiichi had said was that Shion was going to kill someone to protect Satoko, but he managed to talk her out of it.

"I know what you're thinking," Shion said, bringing Daisuke back to reality and Daisuke could see that she had been studying his expression, "Yeah, I know, as hard as it is to believe, I hated Satoko with a passion and blamed her for all of Satoshi-kun's problems. I didn't understand the situation and I thought that Satoko's dependence of her ani was what was causing him stress and placing a heavy burden on his shoulders and I'll admit, that was probably a factor, but not to the level that I was hyping it up to be."

"Sounds like jealousy to me," Daisuke said, voicing his opinion, "Like you were jealous that Satoko-san was taking up much of his time and you wanted to spend time with him, but couldn't because he was tending to his imōto."

Shion stared at Daisuke for a moment and for a moment, it looked as if Shion was going to lash out at him and Daisuke feared that he had angered her and raised his hands, ready to defend himself, but at length, Shion just sighed and calmed down.

"You know, to be perfectly honest with you, I never really thought of that," she sighed, shaking her head, "But now that I think about it, you're probably right. Maybe that was the case."

Daisuke then relaxed once he saw that Shion was no longer going to attack him.

"Gomen, I didn't mean to upset you," he apologised simply.

"No, it's okay, you brought up a valid point," Shion said dismissively with a wave of her hand and then continued with her story, "However, it came to a head one day when I was posing as Mion and it was lunchtime at the school and Satoko spilled her lunch and started crying and when she called for Satoshi-kun, I lost it and started beating her up while telling her what I thought of her, but she wasn't listening and was screaming for her ani. In truth, I was actually considering killing her, but then Rika-chama and Rena got in the way."

"Wow, you must've really lost it if you were going to resort to murder," Daisuke commented as his eyes widened in surprise.

"I honestly don't know what came over me," Shion said with a regretful sigh as she remembered that incident, "Luckily for Satoko, though, Satoshi-kun came to her rescue and punched me across the room, which was also fortunate for Rika-chama and Rena because I was so angry that, had he not intervened, I probably would have ended up trying to kill both of them along with Satoko and Satoshi-kun was understandably not too happy and he revealed that he hated the Sonozaki Family, blaming them for the prejudice his family suffered and since I was posing as Mion at the time, it was Mion who was left holding the baby and she had to clean up my mess."

"I can imagine," Daisuke said as he gave Shion a disappointed look and Shion sighed, "So your closeness to Satoko is a means of atoning for what you did to her back then, is that it?"

Shion just nodded in regret.

"Okay, if you don't want to say anymore, I understand," Daisuke said as he decided that he had heard enough like with Rena and Mion before him.

"No, I'll tell you more, there's more," Shion said rather hurriedly, causing Daisuke to look at her in surprise as he did not expect this.

"Huh, you want to tell me more?" he said in surprise, "But you don't have to."

"No, I don't, but I'm choosing to," Shion said sternly and Daisuke just nodded, unsure on how to respond, "Anyway, thankfully Mion was able to clear everything up and Satoshi-kun and I were able to mend fences with one another. The following day, in Okinomiya, we both went to the toy store owned by another of my oji, who coincidently is also called Yoshirō and he's not the same Yoshirō who owns Angel Mort. He was intending to get a teddy bear for Satoko since her birthday was coming up, but he didn't have enough money and feared that by the time he saved up for it that it would be gone, so I explained to him that he could have the teddy bear reserved. In other words, Yoshirō-ojisan would keep it for him until he saved up enough money to buy it"

Daisuke sighed in relief, glad that Shion and Satoshi had managed to work past that bump in the road.

"Anyway, before he disappeared, Satoshi-kun spoke to me over the phone, telling me to look after Satoko for him and to take her to the Watanagashi Festival," Shion went on as her tone became rather depressed and Daisuke knew that they were getting to the part where Satoshi had disappeared, "He said that he couldn't attend the festival and that there was something that he had to take care of. Curiously, according to Mion, Satoshi had been behaving rather strangely for a few days before his disappearance."

"Huh, behaving strangely, how?" Daisuke asked since he realised that neither Mion nor Rena mentioned this, but put it down to either that it slipped their minds or that they probably felt that he did not need to know.

"Well, Satoshi-kun was part of the little league baseball team, the Hinamizawa Fighters and he quit," Shion went on to explain, "And yet, despite quitting, both Rena and Mion saw him practicing swinging a baseball bat despite the fact that he quit the team."

"Perhaps he felt that he wasn't good enough," Daisuke suggested curiously, "And thought that he'd try out for the team at a later date."

"Preposterous, Satoshi-kun was their star-player," Shion said, shaking her head as she shot Daisuke a glare.

"Gomen, I guess he just had too many problems to deal with," Daisuke apologised and then put in an alternative suggestion.

"Yeah, I suppose so," Shion agreed with a sigh before collecting herself, "Anyway, during the Watanagashi Festival, Hōjō Tamae was murdered. According to the autopsy report, her head had been bashed repeatedly with a blunt-force instrument and her face had been so badly beaten that if you'd seen it, you'd find it hard to believe that it was the face of a human being. Whoever killed her must've really hated her since the majority of the blows were reportedly to have been post-mortem."

"So, whoever killed her kept on beating her even after she was dead?" Daisuke asked curiously as he pondered over what Shion had said and started formulating his own theories.

"A drug addict was initially arrested and suspected of the murder, but he committed suicide before the police had a chance to interrogate him," Shion went on, "However, I did see Satoshi-kun after the Watanagashi Festival before he disappeared."

"Huh, wait, so he didn't disappear during the Watanagashi Festival?" Daisuke said in surprise as he had assumed that he had disappeared during the Watanagashi Festival when his aunt was murdered.

Shion shook her head.

"No, Satoshi-kun's last reported sighting before vanishing was that he was seen boarding a Shinkansen bound for Nagoya," she went on with a sigh, "But after the Watanagashi Festival, we were confronted by Yūkimoto's predecessor, an old detective by the name of Ōishi Kuraudo who wanted to question Satoshi-kun on his whereabouts during the Watanagashi Festival since his oba was murdered and all."

Daisuke's eyes widened in shock at hearing this as he suddenly came to a rather disturbing conclusion as Shion's final words sank in.

"It was Satoshi-san!" he thought in realisation, "He murdered his oba."

It did make sense, the more he thought about it. Everything surrounding Hōjō Tamae's murder started to make an awful lot of sense; the fact that she and her husband abused their niece and nephew, Satoshi's practicing with the baseball bat despite quitting the baseball team, Tamae being found with her face bashed in with a blunt-found instrument and Satoshi's absence from the festival. It all started to fit in place. Satoshi must have had enough of the abuse his aunt and uncle were dishing out and must have decided to take matters into his own hands and beat his aunt to death with his baseball bat. Satoshi did have a perfectly valid motive for killing his aunt and it may also explain why neither Rena nor Mion said anything before. Maybe they knew or at least suspected that he did it and did not want him to know for fear that he would judge them for being friends with and standing up for a criminal. That did make sense.

"Satoshi-kun killed his oba," Shion said, confirming Daisuke's suspicions, much to Daisuke's own surprise, "I'm sure of it."

"Yeah, a festival is the perfect time to commit a murder unnoticed with mostly everyone's attention focussed on the festivities," Daisuke summarised with a nod, "So, the abuse became too much and he snapped?"

"He did it to protect Satoko," Shion said sternly, "Both of them were abused and Tamae suspected that her otto, Teppei was having an affair behind her back and so, she took her anger out on them both, but Satoko in particular received the lion's share of the abuse."

"Sounds to me like he murdered his aunt and then fled," Daisuke summarised and then held his hands up, stopping Shion before she could protest, indicating that he was not finished, "On the outlook, it seems that he was rather selfish and abandoned his shimai, which would indicate that he probably also resented her dependence on him, but since he murdered his aunt to protect his shimai, there's obviously more to it. Things aren't always what they appear and I'm not one to take sides until I've heard all sides to a story. Sure, I could say that Satoshi-san was a selfish, heartless bastard for abandoning Satoko-san, but if he was then that would contradict your account on how he rescued his shimai when you threatened to kill her."

"That's right," Shion said with a nod, "Satoshi-kun loved Satoko. I'm sure he also felt frustrated with her dependence on him, but she was still his shimai and I doubt that he'd throw her to the wolves, especially considering that that rotten bastard, Teppei was still alive."

Daisuke shuddered as he heard the amount of passionate hatred that filled Shion's voice as she referred to Teppei as Shion made it clear that she despised him.

"Thankfully, he fled and went to live with his aijin," Shion went on, calming down somewhat, "Anyway, afterwards, Ōishi-san confronted us and I ended up giving him a false alibi, but the problem was, I was still posing as Mion and Mion had been seen during the Watanagashi Festival and so, I ended up coming clean on who I was."

Daisuke nodded as he listened.

"And we were both taken to the Keisatsusho and were eventually released," Shion went on as she started to tremble as she dug up the memories of what happened next, "Unfortunately, telling the police about my real identity proved to be a mistake since they contacted the Sonozaki Estate to see if I was who I said I was and needless to say, Oni-baba was not too pleased."

"So it led to you being discovered by the Sonozaki Family," Daisuke summarised as he remembered Mion telling him about how Satoshi's relationship with Shion complicated their already non-existent relationship.

"Uh huh and once I was released, the Sonozaki Family were already outside waiting for me," Shion said as she continued to shudder, "And I was taken to the Sonozaki Torture Chamber that's located on the Sonozaki Estate underground and Oni-baba was not pleased to say the least. Not only had I defied her, but I actually started a relationship with the musuko of the village traitor, though given how some of the family felt about me, I'm sure that they were all pretty happy with this development since they now had the perfect excuse excuse to express how they really felt after me and get away with it. As for me, I was actually quite happy about all this since I got the opportunity to tell that overrated old hag exactly how I felt about her to her face."

Daisuke witnessed Shion's expression turn into a rather smug smile as she spoke and realised that she must be thinking about how good she had felt back then.

"And I did; I let rip on her," she went on before letting out a sad sigh as she remembered what happened next, "Unfortunately though, our argument was escalating and had it gone on, the situation would have gotten out of hand because I was seriously considering slugging the old prune across the face. Seeing that things were escalating, Mion unfortunately had to step in and side with Oni-baba."

"What?" Daisuke said in shocked surprise as his eyes widened.

"I know, I was surprised at that as well," Shion said as she held her hands up, indicating that she was not finished and that there was more to the situation, "In fact, I did feel rather betrayed at the time, but afterwards, when I thought back to it, I realised that Mion was actually saving me from a far worse punishment."

Daisuke calmed down as he thought this over.

"You see, the Sonozaki Family had also rounded up Kasai and Yoshirō-ojisan and Mion, getting into what I call, "Clan Heiress Mode" told me to apologise to Oni-baba and then suggested that if I did not comply, then Kasai, Yoshirō-ojisan and Satoshi-kun would pay the price instead since I "involved" all three of them; Kasai with his help in escaping from St. Lucia; Yoshirō-ojisan for giving me a job and sheltering me and Satoshi-kun for starting a relationship with him. Mion claimed that both Kasai and Yoshirō-ojisan were behind the door in the next room, though whether or not she was being truthful or not, I don't know and she did hint that they'd hunt Satoshi-kun down and kill him if I persisted in my stubbornness and so, not wanting to gamble their lives, I caved in and had to rip out three of my fingernails; one for each person I had "involved", though I ended up freaking out and had to have two of my fingernails ripped out for me."

"Sounds pretty brutal if you ask me," Daisuke said as his eyes narrowed as he imagined the scene in his head.

"Believe me, compared to what could've happened had Mion not intervened when she did, that's fairly light," Shion said in response, "As I said before, Mion only did what she did because she saw that it was the only way to save me. Had I gone and actually lashed out at Oni-baba, the punishment would have been a lot worse and Mion would have been powerless to stop them. I admit, at the time, I resented and even outright hated her, feeling that she had betrayed me, but afterwards, as I lay in my apartment thinking it over, I slowly came to realise that Mion did what she had to do; what was expected of her as the next Head of the Family."

Daisuke nodded as he realised what the green-haired girl was getting at. Mion had seen that the argument between her sister and Oryō was getting out of hand and so, she had intervened and sided with Oryō to save Shion since he knew that Shion was right. Had she managed to physically assault her grandmother, she would have been in for a far more severe punishment and Mion would have been powerless to do anything to stop them and so, not wanting to possibly lose her sister, Mion stepped in and took over as Head so as to spare her sister's life. She may have hurt Shion, but ultimately, she ensured that Shion's life was spared, though he did wonder if the Sonozaki Family really would have punished Kasai, Yoshirō and Satoshi if Shion tried calling their bluff. He knew Mion well enough to know that she would not have harmed them, but unfortunately, the same could not be said for the rest of her family. He did not know them well enough to judge them, but judging from their links to the Yakuza, he definitely did not want to chance it and understood why Shion had caved in. Mion was perhaps the only person that she would listen to.

"In any case, after I was released, Satoshi-kun had already disappeared," Shion went on with a sad sigh, "And Mion paid me a visit to apologise."

Daisuke nodded since he knew that Mion and Shion were quite close and figured that they must have worked past that incident.

"Of course, I'll admit, despite everything, I still kind of resented her for it, but I understood the situation," Shion went on with a sigh, "Unfortunately, Mion's not convinced and it makes everything worse. In truth, I was starting to suspect the Sonozaki Family of being behind it."

"Yeah, Mion-san said that as far as the mysterious murders and disappearances go, the Sonozaki Family took credit for them all despite having nothing to with it so they could intimidate their enemies," Daisuke said as he recalled what Mion had told him.

"Yep, that's a policy that Oni-baba has in place; that whenever something bad and unexplained happens, the Sonozakis always claim credit for it," Shion said in agreement, "Though to tell you the truth, now that I think about it, after Satoshi-kun disappeared, I found myself wishing that the Sonozakis were behind it all. I was so angry with them at what they had done to me and how they had treated me over the years that I wanted revenge and so, despite having nothing to do with the Watanagashi Murders and Disappearances, I wanted them to be the culprits so I would have a perfect excuse to take my revenge and I let my anger surface after Mion made an off-hand comment about Satoshi-kun and almost strangled her to death."

"Kinda like how you almost beat Satoko-san to death," Daisuke commented as he thought back to when Shion told him what she had done to Satoko.

"Yeah, I don't know what came over me, but I let my anger get the best of me and took it out on Mion," Shion said with a regretful sigh as she shook her head, still unable to believe that she had tried to kill her sister, "However, fortunately, I noticed that Mion had three fingernails missing, which stopped me for going through with in and Mion told me that she put herself through the same punishment, claiming that since we're futago, it's not fair that only one of us has to suffer. Luckily I was able to calm down and comforted Mion, who was really upset."

"I see," Daisuke said with a sigh.

"So, are you okay with that; that Satoshi-kun killed his oba?" Shion asked curiously.

Daisuke thought it over for a minute or two and then gave Shion a stern look.

"I won't lie to you, Shion-san, I'm shocked that he would do something like that," he said simply as he stated his mind, "However, I think I understand. He and his shimai were being abused and being labelled a traitor meant that there was no one he felt that he could turn to for help and didn't want to involve his friends in his own problems. I'm guessing he didn't want to bring you guys down with him in the event that something went wrong. However, I think he felt that he was forced into a corner and did what he believed he had to do. I can't say that I'm happy about that, but I think he believed that he had no other choice."

"Dai-chan, you're starting to go round in circles," Shion said as she noticed that Daisuke was starting to repeat himself.

"Gomen, anyway, I think I understand why Rena-san and Mion-san never said anything," Daisuke went on with a nod, "They probably believed that I would judge them for trying to defend a murderer, but I won't. Who am I to judge? It's none of my business. Besides, now that I think about it, considering that I'm an amnesic cyborg, I've probably done far worse."

Shion could not help but nod as she heard him. That was indeed a possibility; that he probably did things that would make Tamae's death seem like the work of a petty criminal.

* * *

Not long afterwards, Shion and Daisuke exited the building and found Rena waiting for Daisuke.

"Gee, you two sure took your time," she said as she gave them both a suspicious look.

"Gomen, Rena-san," Daisuke apologised with a nervous laugh, "But that took longer than I anticipated."

"Yeah, gomen, Rena," Shion said with a nervous laugh of her own, "Well, I better get going, I'm late back to the Estate."

"Okay, take care, Shion-san," Daisuke said, waving to Shion as she ran in the direction of the Sonozaki Estate.

"So, what did you talk about?" Rena said in a slightly demanding tone, letting it be known that she was a bit fearful of what went on between them and was also feeling a tad jealous.

"I was getting Shion-san's side of the story concerning Satoshi-san," Daisuke replied honestly, knowing that it was useless to lie to the orange-haired girl and he had learned that Rena absolutely detested liars, "For example, did you know that Shion-san was the one who beat Satoko-san up two years ago?"

"Huh, that was Shī-chan?" Rena said in surprise, making it clear that she did not know that, "But I thought…"

"That it was Mion-san," Daisuke finished for her as he interrupted her, "Shion-san was posing as her shimai in order to get closer to Satoshi-san so she can get to know him better and she blamed Satoko-san for all of Satoshi-san's problems; blaming it on her dependence on her ani."

"I see," Rena said with a nod, "But surely they've resolved their differences since Shī-chan and Satoko-chan are quite close."

"Hai, I believe that Shion-san wants to atone for what she had done," Daisuke said as he remembered what Shion had said.

He then looked at the sky and seeing how dark it was, he realised that he and Shion had been talking for longer than he had originally thought since the last of the sun's rays were almost below the horizon.

"Anyway, it's late, so let's go, Rena-san," he went on and Rena smiled as she suddenly linked her arm with his and they both started walking towards the junkyard for another "treasure hunt".

* * *

Unbeknownst to either of them, the figure from before watched from behind a tree as Daisuke and Rena walked away and once he was sure that they were a good distance away, he walked out onto the path and started to follow them.

"My, my, you're proving to be a right disappointment, Shishigō," he said to himself with a frown, "Sure, you may have defeated the Shadirā, but your behaviour off the battlefield needs major adjustments. I can't believe that you're actually interacting with those riffraff weaklings… well, I guess they're not all weak. In fact, the Sonozaki and Ryūgū harlots would make fine Kaizō Ningen, but love… a soldier has no time for such mundane sentiments such as romance. Such things are beneath you and are a weakness. It seems that you need re-educating in the conduct of a soldier, I will not allow my fine creation to become tarnished."

He then paused for a moment and cleared his throat.

"Reigō-sama's instructions are understood," he went on, talking to himself, "Summon more Shadirā and put you through another test. However, fortunately for you, Reigō-sama also instructs that I let you rest for a few days, so you're fortunate. I think, a five-day lull ought to about do it. Come Saturday, your second test shall begin."

However, he had been so focused on his own thoughts that he failed to notice someone coming in the opposite direction and failing to notice him, he bumped right into him… or the man bumped into him, accidentally knocking off his fedora.

"Hey, watch where you're going, pal," the man said in a rather rude and annoyed tone as the figure stumbled backwards and then moved to pick up his fedora, completely ignoring the rude man.

"Hey, I'm talking to you!" the man said in annoyance, unhappy that the figure was refusing to acknowledge him, "Don't you ignore me."

He then reached up and grabbed the figure by the shoulder and spun him and as soon as the man saw the figure's face, his eyes widened in shock and disbelief.

"Oh, Kami, I don't believe it!" he said, unable to comprehend just who he had just bumped into, "You, you're Kag…!"

However, before the man knew what was happening a thick long purple spike shot out from where the figure was standing and pierced the man through the heart, killing him.

"I do so hate it when I'm recognised," the figure said in disgust as he spat on the man's body, looking down at him with contempt, "However, now that you've seen me and know who I am, I cannot let you live."

* * *

**Author's Notes** – Another chapter done, though to tell you the truth, I was intending to have another Shadirā attack this chapter, but it went longer than I thought and so, I came to the decision to split the chapter in two. No plans have been changed, though I will admit that my decision did enable me to put in an additional scene. Anyway, as you already have seen, my fic is peppered with Japanese words, most of which I got from Google's Translator or researched on the internet. By the way, I've gone back and made a few changes to my previous chapters, nothing major and corrected some grammar mistakes in regards to how the Japanese address family members and another person's family members.


	5. Okinomiya Gumo-chō

**Higurashi no Naku Koro ni: Kamen Aegis**

**Okinomiya Gumo-chō**

**Disclaimer** – I do not own anything from either Higurashi no Naku Koro ni or Kamen Rider. Higurashi is the property of Ryūkishi07, 07th Expansion and Studio Deen and Kamen Rider is the property of Shōtaro Ishinomori, Tōru Hirayama and Mainichi Broadcasting Systems Inc. Also anything based off characters, enemies etc. from other works or any characters from other works, the things that they're based on and those characters are the property of their respective creators, companies etc. Also this fic was inspired by the fic, Kamen Rider Shōwa, which is the property of Kamen Rider Chrome and following a similar setting. It is not my intention to plagiarise from him and after discussing the idea with him, I have permission to do this fic.

* * *

**Okinomiya, XX Prefecture, Japan – Saturday 23****rd**** June 1984 (five days later)**

It was the early hours in the morning and the figure in the black trenchcoat and fedora had navigated the maze of alleyways that was situated between the buildings in the town. Currently he was in a clearing where there was a massive gap between the backs of two buildings. In the centre was a campfire that provided the figure with light and not far from the campfire was an old oil drum. There also a few bags containing a white substance lying by the wall of the building to the left underneath a fire escape and the figure was walking back and forth from the bags to the oil drum, picking up a bag and pouring its contents out into the oil drum. Once the oil drum was full, he reached into his trenchcoat and pulled out a box of matches and was about to open it and take out a match when the sound of footsteps got his attention.

"Interrupted again," the figure cursed with a low growl as he turned round and saw that the footsteps belonged to a group of at least five individuals all dressed in tattered clothes, leather jackets and adorning tattoos over various parts of their bodies; heck, one even had a dark pinkish-red Mohawk-style hairdo.

"Hey you, weirdo, whadda ya think yer doin' 'ere," the man in the middle asked in a rather demanding tone, "Dis is our turf 'n' ya ain't 'lowed 'ere, so get lost."

The figure just frowned as he shook his head. They were just a street gang that believed they owned the place; petty thugs, punks and a ragtag band of misfits… any one of those terms would suit their description. Well, the figure had to admit that at least it was not a policeman like the last time; not that it mattered since when everything had been reset to the past almost a week before, the policeman he had killed had been revived and with no memory of his encounter with the mysterious figure, the figure knew that there was nothing to worry about.

"Maybe he's a cop," one of the others to the right of the man in the middle suggested, "He certainly dresses like a cop."

"So, just because I'm dressed in a trenchcoat and a fedora, that automatically marks me as a cop, is that it?" the figure said in a rather annoyed tone after overhearing what the man had said and then gave a snort of disgust, "How stereotypical of you to make such an assumption. I am far from a cop."

"It don't matter what ya are," the man in the middle, obviously their leader said as he glared at the figure, "We ain't 'appy wi' ya on our turf, so get lost or else we're gonna rough ya up."

"Obviously, you haven't learned proper grammar," the figure said in response with a look of disgust adorning his face, "And that's sad. How I pity you, you pathetic excuse for a man. However, if you want me gone, then I'm afraid that I cannot comply since I'm in the middle of an experiment and you all just sealed your fates since I cannot allow you to live."

Before any of the gang could reply or even react, a long and thick purple spike shot out from the figure's direction and flew right into the leader's head, killing him instantly and causing his body to fly backwards a few feet.

The other members of the gang's eyes all widened in shocking disbelieve and horror as the figure quickly turned his attention towards them.

"No way," one man said in complete disbelief, "What is dis?"

"Dat guy ain't human!" another declared as he pointed towards the figure.

However, before they could say any more, two spikes identical to the first shot out from the figure's direction, skewering them both right in the heart and stomach and they both flew backwards before falling to the ground in motionless crumpled heaps. The last two members of the gang both looked at one another, unsure on what to do and then they both nodded before one turned to run while the other whipped out a knife that he had been carrying in his trouser pocket and then lunged at the figure.

"Shine, ya disgustin' mutant spawn!" the gang member declared as he thrust the knife forwards, aiming for the figure's heart.

However, before he knew what was happening, another spike shot out, narrowly missing his head by just a few millimetres and zoomed right into the back of the head of his fleeing companion, causing him to fall and roll along the ground before coming to a stop right next to a corridor made from the walls of two buildings.

"Hopeless," the last gang member heard the figure say in a sinisterly excited tone as he turned back and saw that the figure had raised his hand to defend himself and that the knife that he had tried to impale him with was sticking right into the palm of his hand.

Fear suddenly started to overpower the last remaining gang member as he let go of the hilt and backed away from the figure, shaking in absolute terror and was even more terrified when the figure brought up his free hand and pulled the knife out from his palm as easily as if he was picking something up from the ground and then the figure looked down at the wound in his hand, which was bleeding profusely and then just sighed, not really appearing as if he was in any kind of pain. In fact, if his smile was anything to go by, he appeared as if he had actually enjoyed it. He then turned his wound towards the gang member, who had become rooted to the spot with petrifying fear and the blood seeping from the wound suddenly started to retreat back into the wound as if someone had pressed the rewind button on their TV remote control and if that was not shocking enough, the wound itself slowly started to close up until there was nothing left to suggest that the wound had been there in the first place; not even a scar.

"Terrifying, isn't it?" the figure said as a sadistically cruel and psychotic smile materialised on the figure's face as he opened his mouth and bore his teeth, which were ridiculously white, as if he had brushed them regularly and his canines looked more like vampire-like fangs. He then let out a rather excited sigh that came out sounding more like a bone-chilling hiss and the last gang member could honestly say that he felt as if his blood had frozen solid as he suddenly felt a sharp pain grip his heart and he reflexively brought his hands up to clutch his chest area where his heart was situated before falling to the ground, dead with his expression of pure and absolute terror forever adorning his face.

"Died of a heart attack brought on by fear, how disappointing," the figure said aloud with a frown as he turned back towards the oil drum and opened the matchbox, "Now, time to get on with the experiment."

He then took out a match and lit it before throwing it on top of the white substance and like before, the white substance erupted into flames and the resulting fire climbed till it was at least two storeys high and the figure looked up as the flames caused his eyes to sparkle in sadistic glee.

"Now then, Shishigō, your second test begins," he thought to himself, "Hopefully this time, the Shadirā that emerge will give you more of a challenge than those disappointing Marionetto."

He then turned and started to walk away, knowing that despite the concealing nature of the buildings that the unusually high fire would bring unwanted attention since someone was bound to see it. Nonetheless, that did not matter to him since the fire had already served its purpose.

"Let the death and destruction begin," he thought sadistically with a rather wide psychotic grin that exposed his teeth, "Oh how I do so love causing as much collateral damage as possible. The deaths of innocents are always the best kind of turn-ons."

* * *

Later in the day, Daisuke and the Hinamizawa Gaming Club were all sitting at a table in the local Angel Mort restaurant and were currently munching away at a variety of sweets. Hanyū was especially ecstatic as she continued to gobble down cream puffs like there was no tomorrow and Daisuke could not help but smile as he thought back to five days ago when he discovered that for some reason, his friends were all somehow immune to his Return to the Past System that he had utilised as Kamen Rider Aegis after the Shadirā had attacked the Watanagashi Festival over a week ago… well it was six days ago, but since Aegis had reset the timeline to the day before, technically it had benn a week since then.

In any case, he had been forced to come clean with them and told them what he knew about the Shadirā and his Kamen Rider Powers and despite, trying to leave, believing that his friends would want nothing to do with him, now that they knew at least some of his secrets, he had been surprised to learn that they did not fear or persecute him due to his powers. They still liked him and appreciated his company and he did come to some rather startling revelations all on his own like; just why had he been transformed into a Kaizō Ningen in the first place and what was his true personality like since he had amnesia and could not remember anything prior to waking up in the Onigafuchi Swamp. Questions like those flooded his mind and he feared that he was nothing more than a monstrous killing machine, but thanks to the Gaming Club, he had decided that none of that had mattered at the moment and that he was not going to worry about potential what-ifs and that he would only concentrate on the present and deal with his past when it did eventually raise its ugly head.

However, from Shion, he had also learned that Hōjō Satoshi, the boy who had disappeared two years previously had actually murdered his aunt to protect Satoko from abuse and that had shocked him, but then he decided that it did not matter and despite disagreeing with Satoshi's method in handling the situation, he understood the situation and what had driven Satoshi to do what he did. Given Satoshi's situation; not just with his aunt and uncle, but with the majority of the villagers as a whole, he honestly could not blame Satoshi for what he did. However, he unfortunately disappeared and despite it seeming like a case of killing his aunt and then fleeing, Daisuke knew that Satoshi just would not abandon his sister and if he had decided to flee, he probably would have taken Satoko with him. Daisuke knew that there was more to it than that and despite getting Shion's side, like with Mion; he had the distinct notion that she had not been completely honest with him. However, like with Mion, he decided to let it slide since he knew that Shion had her reasons.

Anyway, during the past five days, he and the others had engaged in various club activities and despite his cybernetic enhancements, he had lost a few games; mostly to Mion and Mion had gotten her revenge for him forcing her to wear that dress to the Watanagashi Festival by making him wear the exact same dress, which had been one big embarrassment. He had been fortunate enough in that none of the villagers had paid him any mind during the experience and figured that since the others had gone out wearing Punishment Game outfits in the past, the villagers must have long since gotten used seeing the others in similar outfits and since the villagers knew that he mostly spent most of his time in their company, they must have guessed that he had joined their club and were not all that bothered by his attire, which helped, but it was still pretty embarrassing and he was already plotting his own revenge against Mion.

"So, I wonder what sort of game we're going to play today," Mion said as Daisuke was briefly brought out of his thoughts.

"Hopefully one that I can win," Keiichi said, speaking up as despite Daisuke's inclusion, he was still the biggest loser.

"Well, we'll definitely be playing a game that Kei-chan's not so good at," Mion replied with a smug look on her face and she flashed an equally smug grin at Keiichi as she playfully taunted him.

"Oh yeah, well, I'm going to win this time for sure," Keiichi declared with a glare, "And then I'm gonna make you pay for all those times you humiliated me in the past."

"Yeah, yeah, I'm sure you will," Mion said with a mocking yawn.

"Do your best, Kei," Daisuke encouraged as he decided to try and embolden Keiichi since he also had a bone to pick with Mion.

"Why, thank you, Dai," Keiichi said, feeling rather emboldened and felt his confidence grow, "I'll win this time, I just know it."

This was nothing new. Daisuke had seen it all before. Keiichi would always boast about he was going to win and get his revenge on Mion, but when it actually came down to it, Keiichi very rarely won, though when he did, he would always be sure to milk his victory for all it was worth. Keiichi's declarations had become so repetitive that the others just could not resist rolling their eyes every time they heard him.

"Dream on, Keiichi-san," Satoko said in a boastful tone, "We've all seen you in the past. You very rarely win at all and the times that you do win, it's usually just down to a string of good luck."

"Oh yeah, well I'm gonna prove you wrong, Satoko," Keiichi declared as he glared at the blonde-haired pre-teen in a challenging fashion.

"Please, even at the best of times, you probably couldn't even fight your way out of a wet paper bag even if your life depended on it," Satoko continued to boast with a rather bored yawn.

"You… you take that back," Keiichi said, though he hesitated for a moment as he had not thought up of a response and found that he could not come up with a suitable response and so just said the first thing that came into his head.

Daisuke just chuckled as he observed their antics. Despite being a full-fledged member of the club now, there were time when he still felt like an observer and he was happy to be a part of the group.

* * *

Meanwhile, elsewhere in the town, Yūkimoto Ginjurō and Kumagai Katsuya both got out of Yūkimoto's black Honda as they had pulled up right next to an alleyway that had been cordoned off by police tape. However, seeing a homeless man sitting Indian style right next to the alleyway with a cup sitting in front of him caused Yūkimoto to sneer in disgust.

"Kumagai-san, you go on ahead, I'll be with you in a second," Yūkimoto said as he nodded his head towards the alleyway.

"Why?" Kumagai inquired with a suspicious glare as he also noticed the homeless man.

"That's none of your damn business, now get going!" Yūkimoto demanded threateningly with a disdainful glare, letting Kumagai know that he was in no mood to argue.

Kumagai just nodded and looked at the homeless man and then levelled a warning glare back at the cruel detective as if to say, "You better not try anything".

It was no secret that Kumagai absolutely detested Yūkimoto; in fact, the majority of the police force hated him and as far as Yūkimoto was concerned, the feeling was mutual. He had not wanted to come to Okinomiya in the first place. He preferred big cities and not rural towns like Okinomiya and he had a really low opinion of those who dwelled out in the countryside. However, unfortunately, there had been no one else available and he had gotten the job against his wishes and he made no secret of how he detested his reassignment. As far as he was concerned, those who dwelled in the countryside were nothing more than filth and he hated socialising with such people. They were beneath him and to be forced to serve them and uphold the peace of their community… he considered it an insult on his being. He had told his superiors that he "Did not associate himself with such lowlife garbage". Nonetheless, he had been forced to comply since there was no one else available.

"Damn it; and not even onī-chan could get me out of this one," he huffed as Kumagai went down the alleyway and he then walked up to the homeless man, who just shuddered nervously.

Looking down at the man and noticing that he had quite a few coins in his cup caused him to sneer in absolute disgust.

"My, you're pretty lucky," Yūkimoto went on to brag, "I bet you must feel rather privileged that a lot of hardworking people actually took some time out of their busy schedules to take pity on you and give you some of their hard-earned money when you've done absolutely nothing whatsoever to earn a single penny."

The man just trembled as he did his best to ignore the cruel detective. However, this did nothing to dissuade Yūkimoto as he bent down and picked up the cup and then emptied the coins out onto his free hand.

"Since you've done nothing to earn this money, you're totally undeserving of it," he went on with a cruel sneer as he placed the money into his left trouser pocket, "But don't worry, I'll make sure that it goes towards a good cause."

"Greedy bastard," the man mumbled under his breath, "Just leave me alone."

"Huh, what was that?" Yūkimoto said jokingly as he bent over and put his hand to the side of his ear, "Speak up, I don't believe I quite heard you."

The man just trembled, refusing to oblige the cruel detective, knowing that that was what he was wanting him to do.

However, Yūkimoto, upon realising that the man was refusing to oblige him, glared down at him as his expression transformed into a hateful and disgusted sneer and he threw the cup down on the ground and then angrily kicked the man in the stomach.

"Pathetic little turd," he cursed hatefully as he spat down on the man, "If you weren't this lazy, you wouldn't be in this position. If you want a house to live in and a roof over your head then you're going to have to earn it and get a job. People like you are the scourge of humanity. There are a lot of god upstanding people out there who actually make an effort and earn their living and work for the benefit of society as a whole and then there's your kind, the kind that are too lazy to do any kind of work and would rather leech off others in order to make your way in life. Such filth disgusts me. You're nothing but a waste of space and if you can't get your head out of your ass and make an effort to find yourself a job, then you're better off just dying in a ditch."

He then walked off down the alleyway, leaving the man cradling his sore stomach from where he had kicked him. However, Yūkimoto could not help but smile cruelly in sadistic glee as he had just stolen from that man, but since he was homeless, he doubted that anyone would want to help him. He had told the man that the money he had taken from him would go towards a good cause and in Yūkimoto's mind, he was right; it would go to a good cause, which in reality was basically just Yūkimoto spending the money on himself. It was not the first time he had taken from the homeless either. It was a habit to him and in his mind, none of those people deserved the money he took since it had been given to them and not earned through hard work and whenever someone would point out that he had done nothing to earn that money either, he would always justify himself by claiming that as a police officer, his job was very hard and tiring and so, in his mind, he had earned the money and he always spent the money he took on himself and his own desires.

Anyway, putting that to the back of his mind, he continued to navigate through the maze of alleyways till he came to a clearing between the backs of two buildings where, in the centre was an old burnt-out oil drum and he noticed at least five dead bodies; four of which had rather strange looking purple spikes lodged in them and the fifth was clutching his chest with a look of pure terror etched on his face. He also noticed a group of empty bags that appeared to have been sandbags littered near the oil drum. There were also policemen and a forensic team on site, combing the surrounding area.

"Okay, Kumagai-san, what have you got for me?" he asked in a tone that was devoid of his usual disgust and contempt; in short it was a tone of pure professionalism.

"Well, Yūkimoto-san, as you know, around about 3AM this morning, a few local residents noticed an unusually high fire about two to three storeys high in this area and phoned the police," Kumagai explained in a tone similar to Yūkimoto's, "Well, actually, in truth, they weren't entirely sure where the fire was and so the officers called were ordered to scout the surrounding area and it wasn't long before they came across this scene; a burnt out oil drum along with those empty sandbags littering the area and five dead bodies, all belonging to the members of a known street gang that terrorised this part of Okinomiya."

Yūkimoto just nodded as he surveyed the scene, not really caring for the dead bodies since, as Kumagai had said, they were members of a local street gang… thugs and were not even worth his time. However, seeing the mysterious purple spikes did pique his interest though since they were clearly the murder weapons and did not look like any sort of standard murder weapon that he had seen before.

"Anything else that we should know?" he asked curiously.

"Uh huh, there is," Kumagai said with a nod as he bent down and picked one of the empty sandbags up and motioned for Yūkimoto to hold out his hand, which he did and Kumagai opened the bag and then shook it, emptying out a small amount of a mysterious white substance that Yūkimoto had to say resembled salt or sugar, "I think it's plainly obviously that the contents of those bags were what had been poured into the oil drum and that's what had caused the fire."

"It looks like salt or maybe even sugar," Yūkimoto said with a frown of disappointment, though he did have to admit that it did look as if the contents of the bags had been responsible for the mysterious fire.

"Yes, that's exactly what I thought at first and so did the other officers as well," Kumagai said in agreement and then he frowned, "But unfortunately, it's neither salt nor sugar and unfortunately, one officer tried tasting it and according to him, it tasted neither of salt nor sugar and unfortunately, it burned the inside of his mouth."

"What?" Yūkimoto said in shock, though he had to admit that this was indeed rather intriguing to him.

"Yes, unfortunately the officer perished not long after," Kumagai went on with a sad sigh as he thought about the officer's death, "His body's being transported to the morgue for an autopsy and a toxicology test since he just collapsed without any prior warning and we've sent some of this substance to toxicology as well to establish what it is."

"Could it be some sort of drug?" Yūkimoto inquired curiously, "You know, like what if there's a drug dealer in the area and the police were closing in on him, then he may have been disposing of the evidence."

"That was one line of enquiry that we pursued," Kumagai admitted with a frown as he shook his head, "But unfortunately, there's no known drug dealers in this area and there's nothing from the other branches back at the keisatsusho to suggest that there was a drugs investigation going on and besides, I highly doubt that disposing of drugs would cause such a huge fire and don't forget, whatever this stuff is; it may be toxic since one of our officers died after ingesting some of it."

"Yes, I see your point," Yūkimoto admitted with a sigh and then turned his attention on the dead bodies, "And what can you say about the murder victims and before you say so, I think that it's plainly obvious that they had come across whomever it was that was disposing of this stuff and interrupted him and so, he or she must've murdered them to keep them quiet."

"Yes, it seems that whatever it was that was going on, they did indeed see something," Kumagai admitted with a nod, "However, from what we can establish; only four of the victims are confirmed to have been murdered. From the state of the fifth, we can only hypothesise that he must've died from a heart attack."

"Yes, I saw that," Yūkimoto admitted with a sigh, "And judging from the look on his face, I'd have to guess that his heart attack must've been brought on by sheer fright."

"Uh huh," Kumagai agreed with a nod, "Though I can't imagine just what it was he could've seen that would cause a level of fright so intense to induce a heart attack."

"Who knows?" Yūkimoto said with a sigh, "Anyway, what can you tell me about the murder weapons?"

"Well, two of the victims had… I really don't know what to call them, but two of the victims had one in their heads," Kumagai went on with a sigh as he could not really think of a name to give the spikes impaled in the victims, "One had a weapon impaled in their heart and the last had one impaled in their stomach. However, from what we can gather, it seemed that three of the victims had initially been caught by surprise and after investigating the surrounding area, forensics have established that those things had been travelling at quite a speed when they made contact since the victims were sent flying. However, from the position of the fourth, I'd have to say that he had obviously tried to flee the scene since the weapon was found impaled in the back of his head and he was discovered right near a "corridor"."

"Anything else?" Yūkimoto inquired as he raised an eyebrow.

"Well, there was a blood-stained knife found nearby," Kumagai explained simply, "So, that indicates that there must've been a confrontation of some kind; perhaps one of the victims had made an effort to try and defend themselves. The knife's been taken away for further investigation. We're going to try and ascertain just who the blood on the knife belongs to."

"What about the murder weapons themselves?" Yūkimoto demanded, becoming impatient as he had decided that he had heard enough, "Anything on the murder weapons?"

"Well, we can't say were certain exactly what they are," Kumagai went on to explain, "However, we can definitely ascertain that they're definitely not man-made. No, whatever they are, they seem to be composed of a material of the natural world and not anything that was made by man."

"All materials originate from the natural world, you twit," Yūkimoto said impatiently before he calmed down somewhat, "But I do get what you're saying. So you reckon that whatever these are, they seem to belong to some kind of animal, is that it?"

"Hai," Kumagai said with a nod.

"I see," Yūkimoto sighed as he shook his head, "Anyway, it doesn't really matter; we're going to use this to finally put an end to the Sonozakis once and for all. Now, I want arrest warrants issued for all members of the Sonozaki Family, pronto."

"N-now wait a minute," Kumagai protested in shock, unable to believe what he had just heard and the others in the area all turned to look at him looking as surprised as he was, "There's no evidence to suggest that the Sonozakis did this. In fact, I don't think that they did this. It doesn't bear the hallmarks of a Sonozaki killing."

"I don't care; if there's no evidence, then you fabricate evidence, you ignoramus," Yūkimoto growled in annoyance, "They're Yakuza; no one will care if they were put away."

"Now hold on there, Yūkimoto-san," Kumagai said as he shot Yūkimoto a glare, letting him know just how much he hated him, "Are you suggesting that we ignore the guilty party just so we can satisfy your grudge against the Sonozakis?"

"That's precisely what I'm saying," Yūkimoto said with a rather cruel grin, "You need to understand, Kumagai-san, that no one really cares about who does what in this rotten world. The general public are nothing more than a bunch of ignorant gullible lemmings that will only be satisfied just so long as someone is punished and they don't give a damn who it is or even if they're guilty of innocent. Just so long as someone gets punished and there's evidence to back it up, people are not really interested in the truth."

"I find it hard to believe that you're even a cop with an attitude like that," Kumagai said in pure disgust as an expression of revulsion materialised on his face, "And no, we won't pamper to your whims. We're going to investigate this crime and we're going to arrest the guilty party."

The other officers present all nodded in agreement, letting the cruel detective know that they agreed with their colleague as they all shot him disgusted glares of their own.

"Weaklings," Yūkimoto cursed as he glared back at them in disgust, "You country-dwelling lowlifes are nothing but a bunch of weaklings. Don't you realise just how much time and effort it'll probably take to track down the guilty party? It could be weeks, months, may even years and I don't know about you, but I just don't have that kind of time. It'll be easier just to arrest some poor sap that no one would really care about, isolate him for the maximum length of time yōgisha can be held or till he cracks and "confesses" and then fabricate evidence to convict him. I've done it before."

"Maybe where you come from, you can get away with that sort of thing, but we don't do that sort of thing here," Kumagai said as he intensified his glare as he stared at his colleague in revulsion, "So, no, we won't do as you say."

"Well then, that's just too bad, Kumagai-san," Yūkimoto said, shaking his head as the edges of his lips curled upwards and form a rather sinister looking grin and Kumagai and the others could not help but wonder just what he was planning, "Just one question though; how much do you care about your family?"

Almost immediately, before Yūkimoto had time to react, Kumagai suddenly grabbed him by the creases of his shirt and pulled him towards him while giving him a rather ferocious and frighteningly furious glare.

"Don't you even think about it!" the more benevolent detective threatened in a dangerously low voice, "If you're planning on doing what I think you're doing just to ensure our cooperation, then forget it!"

"Well, that's too bad, isn't it, Kumagai-san," Yūkimoto said in a rather eerily calm tone and did not look all that affected by Kumagai's outburst and even had the audacity to flash him a rather arrogant and smug looking grin, "Now let me ask you another question, just who is the daijin of the Hōmushō?"

"Huh, what does the Hōmushō have to do with anything?" one of the other officers asked curiously.

"My sentiments, exactly," Kumagai said, agreeing with his colleague as his glare intensified and his grip on the cruel detective's shirt tightened, "Just what're you planning?"

"Just answer the question," Yūkimoto said demandingly.

"Why the Hōmu Daijin is Yūkimoto… Jintarō," Kumagai said as his expression became one of pure shock as he said Yūkimoto's family name and he involuntarily released his grip on Yūkimoto's shirt.

"Hai, Yūkimoto-daijin is none other than my onī-chan," Yūkimoto proclaimed rather smugly as a rather sickeningly arrogant grin appeared on his face, "So to answer your question as to how I'm a cop despite my supposedly abysmal conduct, it's all because of Jintarō-onīchan and not only that, but I had an itoko in Haruyama up North in Hokkaidō and one of my otōsama's friends just so happens to be the shachō of the Keisatsuchō. So as you can see, I'm fairly well connected. One word from me and I can easily bring down all your families."

He then paused for a moment to rest his throat as everyone else present all shot him rather contemptuous glares.

"For example, you, Kumagai-san," he went on as he picked up from where he left off, "You have a tsuma and a musuko. I can easily arrange it so that your musuko is arrested on drugs charges and your tsuma will be arrested for suspected prostitution."

"What makes you think that I'll give you that chance, you disgusting snake?" Kumagai growled in a low voice as he found his right hand reaching for his gun.

"Simple, because every six hours or so, I check-in with Jintarō-onīchan," Yūkimoto started to explain, his smugly arrogant grin never leaving his face as he spoke, "Of course, something could happen that causes me to be late, so in that case, onī-chan waits another six hours and if I haven't checked in after twelve hours have passed, he'll automatically assume that something's happened to me and in that case, all hell will break loose here since he'll assume that you all had something to do with it and like me, he cares not for innocence or guilt. You'll all end up being punished anyway, regardless."

"No way, you're bluffing," Kumagai said in pure disbelief as he maintained and intensified his glare towards the cruel detective.

"Do you want to take that chance, Kumagai-san?" Yūkimoto boasted tauntingly as he dared Kumagai to call his bluff, "Are you willing to gamble with the careers and livelihoods of your colleagues as well as the lives of your family? Are you willing to risk it?"

Kumagai maintained his glare as he debated on whether or not he wanted to take the chance that Yūkimoto was bluffing. Sure, he knew for a fact that Yūkimoto Jintarō was probably Yūkimoto's brother and he was the Hōmushō Daijin or the Minster of Justice, but from what Kumagai knew, the police were totally independent from the government, which was a system set up so as the government could not use the police as political tools and so, even if his brother was the Hōmushō Daijin, his powers in helping his brother were quite limited. However, his father's friend was another story. He was the shachō of the Keisatsuchō or the Director of the National Police Agency and was a different story or maybe Yūkimoto had been bluffing about him and what about his cousin up in Hokkaidō? Did he exist and if so, just what was his role? Was Yūkimoto as well connected as he claimed or was he bluffing and even if he was not bluffing, Kumagai had to wonder if he had more connections then he mentioned.

Looking at Yūkimoto, he tried studying his posture to see if he could detect any signs of deception; anything that may hint that he was not as serious as he claimed to be. However, all Kumagai could detect was that sickening aura of arrogant smugness and Yūkimoto did look so sure of himself and did not look like he was bluffing or was he just so sure that they would believe him? Kumagai honestly could not tell if that was the case or not and thinking over the possible consequences if he decided to chance it and Yūkimoto was not bluffing caused him to shudder and ultimately decided that the risk was just too great.

"You win, Yūkimoto-me," he spat venomously as he glared murderously at the cruel detective, who just continued to smirk and praise himself and Kumagai's face twisted in disgust as he felt the urge to expel his stomach's contents from his mouth.

He honestly could not stand this man and his attitude sickened him. Just what sort of a man only cared about getting results instead of hunting for the real culprits? He just could not understand Yūkimoto at all. In fact, when he first laid eyes on him, he could honestly say that he downright hated him. He seemed to have this notion that everyone and everything else was beneath him and portrayed himself as if he was superior and he made no secret of it and actively went out of his way to rub his so-called superiority in everyone else's faces and seemed to get a kick out of arresting would-be criminals regardless of whether they were guilty or not. Now Kumagai was no fool. He had heard rumours about some police officers who arrested folk and held them in isolation without access to lawyers and pressured them into confessing, even if they were innocent, but the law required evidence to corroborate the confession, but that did not stop them as they pressured them into signing confessions that had not even been written out while going on a hunch and then trying to pass their own police reports off as confessions and sometimes they would go as far as fabricating evidence just to ensure a guilty verdict. However, whether those rumours were true or not, Kumagai did not know, though he suspected that at least some of them were true. Yūkimoto seemed to be one of those few who practiced that sort of thing… in fact, he had outright admitted it, but what angered Kumagai the most was that through studying Yūkimoto, it seemed that he only did what he did for no other reason other than the thrill of it. In fact, given how gleeful he had seen the cruel detective in the past, he would not at all be surprised if he learned that he deliberately targeted innocent people, knowing they were innocent just because he found ruining their lives to be his idea of fun.

"You made a wise decision," Yūkimoto praised with a satisfactory nod, bringing the more benevolent detective out of his thoughts and back to reality, "Now, we're going to say that the Sonozakis were behind this and we're going to issue arrest warrants for the Sonozakis along with Sonozaki Mion's band of misfits; including the children. I want that little freak, Furude Rika behind bars for life."

"You're no Kura-chan," Kumagai grumbled as he and his other colleagues present continued to glare at the cruel detective.

"And, Kumagai-san," Yūkimoto went on as he turned to face his colleague and then suddenly, without any sort of warning whatsoever, lashed out as he delivered a rather devastating punch to his stomach, "Do not mention that overrated old sack of fat in my presence again. That Ōishi character was far too weak and lenient when it came to the Sonozakis. If he had done what needed to be done, the whole mess involving those mysterious murders and disappearances would have been over long ago, but no, he had to let himself be held back with such ridiculous notions such as legality and morality."

"Are you just going to stand there and let us all know just how much of an ass you really are or are we going to continue and get our work done?" one of the other officers spat hatefully.

Yūkimoto turned to glare at the officer and opened his mouth to reply, but then, before he could utter a single word, a globule of what appeared to be some sort of green liquid came hurtling right into him from above at a diagonal angle. The liquid then splashed all over him and he let out a rather loud scream as he felt a burning sensation erupt all over his body as if he had burst into flames. However, if that was not enough, his eyes widened in horror, as did the eyes of everyone present as they witnessed his body starting to dissolve and melt.

"What the heck?" one of the officers said in shock, "Just what the heck is that?"

Kumagai, who had fallen to the ground after being punched and after he picked himself up, looked up in the direction that the globule had come from and his eyes widened in shock and disbelief as he saw that sitting on the wall of one of the buildings was a rather impossibly huge dark grey spider with a dark green tint in its skin and eight dark emerald green eyes dotted over the top of its head.

"What the…?" he started to say in disbelief, but trailed off, unable to think of anything to say that could possibly explain this.

The spider was surveying the surrounding area and opened its mouth, revealing two black fangs as it spat out a green globule identical to the one that had hit Yūkimoto and it hurled into one of the other officers presents, causing him to scream in pain as his body also started to dissolve and melt.

"Oh, Kami, that's some sort of acid substance!" one of the other officers proclaimed as he realised just what the liquid in the globule was before another globule of acid slammed into him and he met the same fate as Yūkimoto and his other colleague.

The rest of the policemen present automatically drew their revolvers and training them on the mysterious giant spider, opened fire. In response, the spider jumped down from the wall and onto the ground with the officers still firing at it, but none of the bullets seemed to find their mark. Once on the ground, Kumagai continued to assess the spider's size and was astonished that it from head to abdomen, it was as long as he was big and was in terms of height, it came up to his knees. It then opened its mouth with its two fangs, one after the other in a snapping motion before it lunged straight towards Kumagai, who was too stunned to react and then it wrapped his legs round his body in a hugging motion and then proceeded to sink its fangs right into his chest causing him to scream in pain as he felt a similar sensation that Yūkimoto had felt before he died as his body also started to dissolve and melt.

"KUMAGAI-SAN!" one of the surviving officers screamed in horror at witnessing what had become of his colleague.

"Look!" another officer said in a fearful tone as he pointed up at the wall of the building opposite the building the spider had been on and to everyone's amazement and horror, they saw yet another giant spider, looking identical to the first.

"There's another one!" yet another officer said pointing to one of the "corridors" on either side of the clearing they were in and situated there was a third spider.

"We've been completely sealed in!" a forth officer said as he motioned his head towards the "corridor" opposite the one where they had just came and low and behold, a fourth spider sat there and the policemen realised that their routes of escape had been completely cut off.

"We're trapped!" a fifth, terror-stricken officer exclaimed as he trembled with pure terror overtaking him.

* * *

Meanwhile, back at Angel Mort, Daisuke and the members of the Gaming Club were leaving with Keiichi still boasting and bragging on how he was going to win the next game and make Mion "suffer" for his past humiliations with everyone else, Daisuke included rolling their eyes in utter boredom since they had gotten so used to Keiichi's declarations by now.

"Like I said before, Keiichi-san, you probably couldn't even fight your way out of a wet paper bag even if your life depended on it," Satoko joked tauntingly as she repeated her earlier insult.

"Oh yeah, well I'll have you know that I've won before, so there," Keiichi said, feeling rather miffed at Satoko's repeated insult.

"Only through a string of good luck," Shion pointed out, causing Keiichi to groan and then glare at her, "And besides, you haven't won a single game since that day we all came across Dai-chan."

"Hai, and because of that, Mī-chan was spared a Punishment Game," Rena said as she remembered that after Shion had accidentally run into Daisuke, Daisuke's condition and their rush to help him had put everything else on hold and because of their concern for him, Mion's Punishment Game had been forgotten about entirely.

"Hear that, Mion, guess you have something to be thankful to Dai about," Keiichi taunted with a ridiculous looking grin on his face, "If not for him, you'd have ended up being more embarrassed than you had ever been before."

"Not to mention that you'd have become my servant for a week," Shion added as she remembered the wager she had made with her sister beforehand.

Mion just groaned in embarrassment, not really wanting to be reminded of that.

Daisuke just laughed as he did recall something along those lines. He remembered Keiichi mentioning to him that the day they had come across him, they had been on their way back from Okinomiya after a day of club activities and Keiichi and Mion's roles as the biggest loser and winner respectively had been switched for the day and Keiichi had been planning on putting Mion through a really humiliating Punishment Game. He would have normally have gone through with it while in Okinomiya, since Punishment Games were normally handed out on the spot, but since Yūkimoto came to Okinomiya and replaced Ōishi, that had became impossible since the one time Mion had dished out a Punishment Game, Yūkimoto had almost arrested her, but luckily Keiichi refused to press charges and Mion was released and Yūkimoto had warned Mion and the Gaming Club that if he saw just one of them in a Punishment Game outfit, he would arrest the whole lot of them.

Anyway, from what Keiichi had said, he had been planning a Punishment Game and Shion had goaded her sister into racing her back to the village with the stipulation that if Mion lost, then she would become her sister's servant for a week starting Monday. However, it was because of Shion getting caught up in her own excitement since she had been winning that she had taken her eyes off the road to taunt her sister that she had run into him and upon seeing his condition, they had dropped everything and rushed him to the Irie Clinic and they had become so concerned for him that Mion's Punishment Game along with the Sonozaki Twins' bet had completely been forgotten about.

"You know, I'm surprised that you're not upset about that, Kei," Daisuke said, commenting on the situation.

"Upset, nah, you were a bigger priority and by the time I remembered, it no longer mattered," Keiichi replied dismissively, "Besides, seeing Mion in that dress you made her wear during the Watanagashi Festival so totally made up for that missed Punishment Game."

"You would say that, wouldn't you, you pervert," Mion grumbled under her breath.

"Au-au-au!" Hanyū suddenly said in an alarmed tone, similar to the tone she had used when alerting the others to Yūkimoto's presence during the Watanagashi Festival before the Shadirā attack.

Daisuke then looked around, being on the alert as he expected to find Yūkimoto coming towards them to confront them yet again and was already formulating a response since he anticipated that he would bring up the topics of his friends' pasts again since, after having been revived and sent back twenty-four hours into the past, he had no memory of his previous encounter with them and so, for him, it would be the first time bringing it up. He also noticed Rika doing the same thing as he posture seemed to take on a maturity and degree of alertness that would normally be found in someone much older and he did recall Rika speaking in a rather mature, deep and adult-like voice when she had tried warning Yūkimoto to keep his mouth shut.

"Seems I'm not the only one with mysterious secrets," he thought to himself as he noted that Rika also seemed to have an air of mystery round her.

In fact, even before he had heard Rika speak in that adult-like voice, he had felt strange vibes coming from Rika; both Rika and Hanyū in fact. He had noticed them both staring at him at times when they thought he was not looking with inquiring looks on their faces; especially while he was explaining himself when he discovered that the Gaming Club were somehow immune to his Return to the Past System. However, the look in their eyes seemed to suggest that they were older and wiser than they looked. They held auras of maturity that were befitting of adults and one would not expect to find in pre-teens and he then remembered Yūkimoto commenting to Rika how six years previously, she had spoken with a policeman from the Keishichō and had recounted the Watanagashi Murders and Disappearances before they had happened and had happened just as she had said.

He also noted Hanyū's horns that appeared to have grown out the sides of her head. Yes, he was aware of them, but since no one else pointed them out, he had decided not to point them out either; plus in the beginning when he had first noticed them, Hanyū had noticed his stare and looked rather upset and so, he learned that she must have been rather sensitive about them and did not bring them up out of politeness since apart from her horns, Hanyū was an okay girl and he did hear of children born with deformities that alienated them from society and caused others to become rather wary round and he guessed that Hanyū's horns must have been some sort of genetic mutation that she had no control over just like those people with their various deformities had no control over them.

However, thinking on it, he could not help but wonder if Hanyū's horns along with Rika's supposed ability to see into the future had anything to do their unusual maturity. Honestly, if he was being completely honest with himself, he could swear that they were both fully-grown women trapped in the bodies of children.

"Demon spiders!" he suddenly heard a woman scream, causing him to turn in the direction of the woman's voice just in time to see a globule of green liquid slam into her, causing her to scream in pain as she started to melt and dissolve.

"Shadirā!" he cursed and the members of the Gaming Club looked on in horror as they witnessed several giant dark grey-green tinted spiders with eight dark emerald green eyes atop their heads emerge from the various alleyways and spit out globules of green acid at passers-by as they stopped and stared in shock at how big the spiders were.

"I take it that they're another type of Shadorujā-level Shadirā," Mion summarised as she saw more spiders crawling down the walls from the roofs of various buildings.

"Uh huh, they're Ashiddosupaidā," Daisuke said as more knowledge of the Shadirā started to unlock itself from inside his mind, "And like their name suggests, their main method of attack is spitting out globules of acid at their targets, but they also tend to latch onto some of their targets and bite them to death and a bite from an Ashiddosupaidā has the same effect as getting hit by their acid globules and also, their silk from their spinnerets is also highly acidic."

"Wow, they're not like those puppet guys," Keiichi said as he observed one jump and wrap its legs round a fleeing man and then sink its fangs into the man's chest, causing him to dissolve and melt.

"No, they're not," Daisuke said as he started walking towards them, "They're a totally different game from the Marionetto from back at the Watanagashi Festival. Anyway, I suggest you guys go and hide somewhere. I'll handle this."

"Now hold on just a second, Dai-chan," Mion protested with a glare, "Like hell I'm going to run and hide like some scared coward."

"No, Mion-san!" Daisuke said in a sharp tone as he glared back at the green-haired girl with a sharp look in his eyes, "This is far too dangerous for you guys."

"You seem to forget that we managed to successfully help out with those puppet guys," Mion replied smugly with an arrogant look on her face as she reminded him of what she, Rena dn Akane had done back at the Watanagashi Festival.

"That's only because of their obvious weakness and slow speed," Daisuke pointed out as he did indeed remember Rena, Mion and quite a few other villagers did manage to defeat some of the Marionetto by themselves, "This is different. There're no strings to severe this time. Besides, the Marionetto are among the weakest types of Shadorujā-level Shadirā. Ashiddosupaidā on the other hand are much stronger."

"You know, he does make a valid point Mī-chan," Rena pointed out, agreeing with Daisuke as she thought over what he had just said, "Those puppet things were fairly simple to deal with and I just don't see any way we can deal with those spider thingies."

"I really hate to admit it, but I have to agree with Rena," Keiichi said, surprising Daisuke since he had expected him to want to fight.

"Yep, onē, as much as I hate to admit it, Dai-chan does have a point," Shion said, adding in her two cents, "Those puppet thingies were fairly simple to defeat, but those spider-like demons look far more complicated to fight."

"Besides, Satoko, Hanyū and I are only children," Rika added in her usual child-like voice, but Daisuke could sense dome of that adult-like maturity in her tone as she spoke, "Even if you could somehow fight them, you'd probably end up holding back due to our presence."

"Hai, I certainly don't how to fight them," Satoko spoke up as she added her opinion.

"But…" Mion tried to protest, unable to believe that the others did not want to fight.

"Look here, Mion," Hanyū spoke up in an unusually harsh tone as if she were a mother laying down the rules for her rebellious child as she gave the green-haired girl a harsh glare, "It's not that we don't want to fight, it's just that we can't fight. The Marionetto were one thing; really easy to deal with once their weakness was figured out. However, the Ashiddosupaidā are on a completely different level altogether. They don't have such an obvious and vulnerable weakness, so with that in mind, I think that it's best that we do as Daisuke says and hide while he handles it."

Looking stunned for a moment, Mion pondered what Hanyū had just told her and at first, she tried formulating a counter statement, but unfortunately, she found herself unable to think up of one and she found herself coming to the conclusion that the others were right. Those spider-like Shadirā were not like the puppets they had faced over a week ago. They did not have such an obvious and vulnerable weakness like the Marionetto had, which was how they had managed to overcome them. Outvoted and unable to form a counter-argument, Mion just huffed unhappily.

"Humph, fine," she huffed in defeat, "Who would have thought it; a group of puppets being outclassed by a group of bugs."

"Those bugs are supersized," Keiichi pointed out as the members of the Gaming Club all started to run and find somewhere to hide.

Daisuke watched then go as his eyes fell on Hanyū and took on a curious look as he recalled Hanyū's lecture she had given Mion. He had to admit that she had stated the truth and she did seem to have displayed some of that same peculiar adult-like maturity Rika seemed to possess, but that was not what caught his interest since he had already established those facts about her. What really intrigued him was that when she mentioned the names of the different Shadirā, the way she mentioned them seemed to suggest that she was familiar with them and thinking back, he remembered five days ago that when he had first mentioned the Shadirā, Hanyū's eyes had widened in pure horror in what he could only describe as recognition, though she had believed that he had not noticed, but he had. However, it had established that Hanyū not only recognised the Shadirā, but she was also pretty familiar with them as well. However, like with the others regarding Satoshi, he had decided to put off confronting her till he was sure that the time was right.

Anyway, turning back to face the Ashiddosupaidā, who had all now noticed him, he took a step forward and brought his hands to the sides of his belt buckle.

"Right, this ends here, you oversized arachnids," he said as he brought both his index fingers to the centre of the buckle and pushed inwards, "Let's go Henshin!"

He then flicked the buckle's outlining, causing it to start spinning.

"Rōtā Beruto Sutātoappu!" the Japanese-accented English voice stated just as before as the buckle outlining increased in speed as it spun and in a blinding white light, Daisuke transformed into Aegis once more.

The Ashiddosupaidā all looked on in confusion and astonishment as the bright light died down, revealing Daisuke, decked in his Aegis armour.

"Oh look at me guys," he taunted in a sarcastic tone, "I'm a big giant man-insect, really a fitting meal for you oversized spiders. Come and get me… if you can."

The Ashiddosupaidā all looked at one another for a brief moment before one of them started to run towards Aegis, deciding to take him up on his challenge. However, Aegis just stood there and waited till it jumped at him and manoeuvred its body till it was in a vertical position with his legs outstretched, ready to wrap round him just like the Ashiddosupaidā had done countless times before. Unfortunately for this one, Aegis suddenly raised his hand in a stop gesture and after briefly crossing his thumb over his palm, the centre of his palm opened up, revealing a hollow-looking hole and then, almost immediately afterwards, a dark brown vapour substance shot out of the hole and the Ashiddosupaidā went flying straight into it before Aegis lunged forwards and delivered a really vicious punch and that sent it flying out of the vapour cloud that Aegis had created and it went hurtling into the wall of a clothing store before falling to the ground and just like the Marionetto, it transformed into a black mist and then dissipated.

The other Ashiddosupaidā all looked on in shock and disbelief and were unable to believe that this lowly armour-clad human had successfully taken out one of their number. However, surveying the situation, they all concluded that whatever that dark brown vapour substance was; it must have had something to do with it and they all made a mental note to stay clear of the vapour cloud, which was in the process of dissipating. However, none of the oversized spiders wanted to take the chance that it was no longer dangerous and so, they responded by firing their acid globules at Aegis, who effortlessly dodged them by jumping into the air and after landing, he pointed the palm of his hand at the Ashiddosupaidā and more of the dark brown vapour substance shot out of the hole in his hand and repeating the process of opening the hole in his palm with his other hand, he shot out another stream of dark brown vapour that covered most of the surrounding area and any Ashiddosupaidā caught within the resulting clouds all suddenly started thrusting themselves backwards and forwards as if suffering from a coughing fit and it only took a few seconds before they transformed into back mist and dissipated as the vapour clouds suffocated them.

However, not off of the Ashiddosupaidā were caught in the vapour cloud and quite a few managed to retreat a safe distance. Looking at the survivors, Aegis started to formulate a plan. He knew for a few that despite being foot-soldiers, Shadorujā were not stupid by any means. In fact the Shadirā as a whole were not stupid and in fact quite intelligent. Many people in the past would often make the mistake that they were nothing more mindless beings dictated by instinct alone and had limited motor functions. However, Aegis knew that the Shadirā were capable of thinking for themselves and actually had problem-solving intelligence. In fact, the Ashiddosupaidā knew that the dark brown vapour that he sprayed from the palms of his hands was dangerous to them, which was why they were currently giving him a wide-berth. They knew he could kill them and were busy formulating a plan of their own on how to deal with him.

However, like all things, the Ashiddosupaidā did have a weakness. More knowledge came running into Aegis's mind as he thought on how to deal with them and he noticed that the remaining Ashiddosupaidā were not really close to one another and in fact, they seemed to be avoiding one another as they stood. Even if they had surrounded a target in a circle, there were hugely noticeable gaps in which the target could escape and whenever they attacked, they did not attack all at once, but instead one would go in for the kill while the others watched. Despite not remembering anything about how he came to know this, Aegis did know that this was the truth. The Ashiddosupaidā would always maintain a distance from one another.

"Of course," he thought to himself as he realised something, "Being modelled after spiders, they share the same instinctive urges as spiders. They have to maintain their distance from one another otherwise they'll attack one another just like real spiders, whose hunting instincts are so powerful that they'll even resort to cannibalism if given the chance."

However, unfortunately for him, the Ashiddosupaidā were also aware of this, which was why they kept their distance from one another. They knew that to close the distance between them, then after a while, they were start fighting amongst themselves till only one was left alive. It was their biggest flaw and Aegis knew that they would take steps to ensure that they did not fall victim to it.

"So, the question is, how can I round them all up?" he thought to himself as the Ashiddosupaidā started spitting out more acid globules, which Aegis effortlessly dodged, though he did notice that the Ashiddosupaidā were retreating.

"Must be too afraid of my Shadirā Bagu Supurē," he concluded with a nod, "Well, they are bug-type Shadirā after all and being as intelligent as they are, I can't blame them."

He knew that Shadirā came in all shapes and sizes and he had individual weapons built into his armour specifically designed for each type of Shadirā, like the blades on the sides of his gauntlets that were designed for dealing with Marionetto and the dark brown vapour that he had shot from his hands; that was designed specifically for dealing with bug-type Shadirā since it acted as a bug-spray. He had other weapons for other types of Shadirā, but since those types were not here at the moment, there was no need to use them.

Hearing something coming in behind him caused him to turn and deliver a roundhouse kick to an oncoming Ashiddosupaidā that had gotten behind him. However, upon further analysing the scene behind him, he came to realise that the one he had kicked had not been among the group that had escaped from his Shadirā Bagu Supurē and was in fact part of a new group that were coming in from behind him. However, upon noticing the one that he had kicked, he found that it had landed on its back and watched as it thrashed its legs violently in the air for a few seconds before transforming into a black mist and dissipating.

"Of course, that works in killing them as well," he noted as he continued to dodge acid globules and seeing how there were now two groups closing in on him, he started to formulate a plan to trick them into spitting their globules at one another.

* * *

Meanwhile, elsewhere in the town, the Gaming Club members had suddenly found themselves separated as they had tried to find a place to hide. They had initially decided to stick together, but everywhere they went, they had found an Ashiddosupaidā sitting there as if lying in wait for them and in the panic and confusion caused by the townspeople as they continued to try and flee, the Gaming Club found themselves being separated in the panicked crowds. Currently, Rika and Hanyū had run down an alleyway after they had managed to stick together.

"What on Earth is going on?" Rika said in her adult-like voice, "Just where are those creatures coming from?"

"They're Shadirā," Hanyū stated with a stern, "don't interrupt me" look on her face, "They come from Dāku Shadō Wārudo."

"But why are they attacking?" Rika asked in frustration, "How come they've never attacked above as far as I know?"

"That is something that even I cannot explain," Hanyū replied with a sigh, "In ancient times round these parts, Shadirā attacks were far more common, but as mankind started to embrace the ideas of science and technology, belief in the magic and the supernatural started to wane and it was then that the Shadirā started to become exceedingly rare in the human world. I don't know why that was though. Even today, the Shadirā can still attack the human world if they choose. However, nowadays the frequency of their attacks has become scarce. It's unusual to have two attacks nowadays in the space of a week."

"You think that Daisuke has something to do with it?" Rika asked curiously as she had to admit that Daisuke was indeed an enigma.

Ever since he had first come to Hinamizawa, Rika had felt something strange and unusual about the mysterious boy. However, she had mostly kept her thoughts to herself since despite the strange feeling she had gotten from Daisuke, there was nothing threatening about him. Daisuke himself posed no threat to her or her friends; of that she was certain and she knew that he had been completely honest with them so far. However, Daisuke seemed to know of the Shadirā and despite being in Hinamizawa a month before the first attack, she had to wonder if the attacks were linked to Daisuke in some way. Of course, she knew that to confront him about it would probably be pointless due to his amnesia, since she could guess that he would probably not remember what they would want with him.

However as they both ran, an Ashiddosupaidā appeared in front of them, having jumped down from the roof of the building to their right and both girls turned to retreat the way they had come, but to their shock, another Ashiddosupaidā blocked their path, trapping them.

"We're trapped!" Rika said fearfully as she frantically spun her head from side to side between the two Ashiddosupaidā.

"Don't worry, Rika, it's not like you haven't died before," Hanyū said jokingly with a sarcastic chuckle.

"This is no time for jokes, Hanyū!" Rika scolded as she glared at her ancestor, "I doubt that you'll be able to transport my soul to another world if I die this time. Don't forget, with each time you transported me to another world, your powers got weaker and had Takano won in this world, we'd both be dead for good."

"Don't worry, Rika, I won't let anything happen to you, I promise," Hanyū said as she gave her descendant reassurance as she stared down the Ashiddosupaidā in front of him with a determined look on her face as she started to summon her godlike powers.

Her pupils suddenly started to glow a pure red colour in their centres as the wind started to pick up and the colour in her irises darkened considerably as Hanyū suddenly became more frightening looking. Both Ashiddosupaidā sensed that something was amiss and hesitated for a moment as they both took in Hanyū's sudden change in appearance.

"I don't know why you chose to attack this town and in truth, I don't really care!" Hanyū stated in a rather deep and feral sounding voice that caused Rika and even their pursuers to tremble, "But I do know that you are not welcome here and I will not allow you to bring harm to my friends any longer and so, with that in mind, either return to where you came from or face annihilation; the choice is yours!"

After getting over their initial shock, the Ashiddosupaidā at the front responded by spitting an acid globule at Hanyū, but Hanyū just thrust out her hand in the globule's direction and the globule stopped while still in the air and suddenly moved back towards the Ashiddosupaidā, which was caught completely by surprise and had no time to react as the globule slammed right into it, causing it to dissolve and melt like the humans did before transforming into black mist and dissipating. However, while Hanyū was distracted the second Ashiddosupaidā attempted a lunge towards her, intending to sink its fangs into her back, but Hanyū quickly turned and thrust her hand in its direction before it could get to her and the Ashiddosupaidā felt as if it had jumped into a brick wall that suddenly started pushing back against it and it fell on its back, thrashing its legs violently in the air before it transformed into a black mist and dissipated.

"Thanks, Hanyū," Rika said, sighing with relief, "That was close."

"No problem, Rika," Hanyū said with a rather cute smile as she suddenly returned to her usual self as if by magic.

"Okay, now let's find the others," Rika said with a look of urgency on her face and Hanyū nodded.

* * *

Meanwhile, Keiichi and Mion had also managed to stick together and Keiichi had found a long metal pipe with a pointed end and had thrown it right at an Ashiddosupaidā, catching it completely by surprise as the metal pipe impaled it in the head, causing it to transform into black mist and dissipate.

"Gee, I guess that's how all Shadirā die," Keiichi said as he remembered witnessing the Marionetto dying in the same way.

He then run over to the pipe and picked it up, all the while dodging acid globules fired from other Ashiddosupaidā.

"Damn it, Kei-chan, don't be so reckless!" Mion scolded angrily as an Ashiddosupaidā lunged for her, but, thinking fast, Mion jumped into the air and delivered a spin kick with enough power to send the giant spider flying quite a distance before it landed on its back and then transformed into the black mist and vanished.

"What're you talking about?" Keiichi said as Mion landed on the ground and rolled to avoid an acid globule.

"You baka, you could've been killed!" Mion scolded as she glared furiously at Keiichi, "This isn't a game, you know. If you die, there are no retries."

"Well, excuse me," Keiichi said as he returned Mion's glare, making it clear that he was feeling rather insulted, "However, you seem to be forgetting that Dai can reset everything to the past, so if we die, it's no big deal. We'll just be revived like nothing had happened."

"Kei-chan no baka, so you think that because Dai-chan can reset everything that it's okay for you to throw caution to the wind and show off?" Mion questioned sharply as her glare intensified.

"What's your problem?" Keiichi asked in annoyance as he returned her glare, "You know that Dai's capable of doing that, so why're you so mad?"

"Baka, even though I'm aware of that, I'd rather not die!" Mion said harshly as she shot Keiichi a rather infuriated look that shot down whatever reply he had been planning on hurling back at her, "Besides, Dai-chan has to survive in order for everything to be reset and I don't know what you think, but despite his powers, Dai-chan is by no means invincible; even if he does look it. These Shadirā have numbers on their side and Dai-chan's just one person and with that in mind, they could overwhelm him if they chose to gang up on him. Also, we somehow happen to be immune to Dai-chan's time-reset ability, think about that for a moment!"

"Huh, what are you saying?" Keiichi asked, clearly not understanding Mion and Mion gave a cry of frustration just as she jumped into the air and spin-kicked another Ashiddosupaidā onto its back as it tried to lunge at her.

"You can really be so dense at times, you know that, Kei-chan," she went on in a frustrated tone, "Honestly, sometimes I find it hard to believe that you're as smart as you are. As I said, we're somehow immune to Dai-chan's time reset ability. If we die, then because of our immunity, we may end up staying dead."

"Huh?" Keiichi said in shocked astonishment as a horrifying realisation washed over him and he suddenly found himself trembling in fear as the realisation dawned on him.

"That's right," Mion went on as she continued to scold him, "And who knows what other limitations that ability has and given Dai-chan's amnesia, I'm sure that he won't remember what they are until they actually happen."

"We could end up staying dead if we… if we die?" Keiichi crocked out in disbelief as he did not want to accept that possibility.

"Of course, I could be wrong and it's just the memory-wipe aspect that we're immune to," Mion said as she calmed down and tried to reassure Keiichi, fearing that she had taken it too far, but then her expression hardened and became serious once again, "However, with that in mind, are you prepared to take that chance?"

Keiichi shook his head as he threw the metal pipe as another Ashiddosupaidā, nailing it in the head, but before he could run and retrieve it, another Ashiddosupaidā spat an acid globule down at the pipe, causing it to dissolve.

"Damn, there goes my weapon," Keiichi cursed as he and Mion continued to dodge acid globules.

"Smart littler critters, aren't they?" Mion noted as she noticed that the Ashiddosupaidā had been aiming at the pipe and not at either her or Keiichi and guessed that it was smart enough to realise that the pipe was how Keiichi was managing to kill them and so, relieved him of it so that he would no longer be a threat to them.

* * *

Meanwhile, Rena was currently running down an alleyway as an Ashiddosupaidā chased after her. She was the only member of the Gaming Club who had not managed to stick with anyone else when the group had been separated. Looking around, she had seen puddles of acid containing the remains of many of the townspeople as they had been either bitten or had acid globules make contact with them. However, Rena had also noticed one Ashiddosupaidā had managed to force a man to the ground and had been cocooning him dark green silk and judging from the way the man had been screaming, it was clear that what Daisuke had said about their silk was true as well; that their silk was also acidic.

Anyway, currently, she was running down an alleyway with an Ashiddosupaidā hot on her heels as it snapped at her. However, unfortunately for her a second Ashiddosupaidā landed in front of her after jumping down from the roof of the building on her left and Rena came to a skidding halt as terror threatened to overwhelm her since she realised that she was now trapped between the two Ashiddosupaidā.

"If only I had my clever," she thought as she felt sweat starting to pour down her face as she started to tremble and looking around frantically, hoping against all hope that an opportunity to escape would present itself.

Upon looking up to her right, she noticed a ladder from a fire escape hanging a few feet off the ground. It was out of her reach, but she knew that she could reach it if she jumped, but then that raised the possibility of leaving her vulnerable should they decide to fire their acid globules since she knew that she would not be able to manoeuvre herself fast enough to get clear and dodge the attack; in fact, she doubted that she would be fast enough to even get up the fire escape before they came crawling up the wall after her; never mind the possibility that there was a third Ashiddosupaidā lying in wait for her on the roof.

However, despite her fear, she suddenly noticed something peculiar. as the one behind her advanced, the one in front of her was retreating for some reason and so, she continued to walk towards it as it was retreating, taking care not to get too close since she knew that it would attack her if she got too close, but after a few minutes, it suddenly stopped and started advancing towards her and the one behind her started to retreat and so, Rena cautiously turned and walked back the way she came.

"What on Earth is going on?" she thought to herself as she started to think of their peculiar behaviour, "Are they trying to lull me into a false sense of security? It looks like they're keeping their distance from one another, but why is that? I bet if one had chased me into a dead-end brick wall, it'd have no problems in killing me."

However, as she continued to think, she did notice the one that had been initially chasing her make a lunge for her with its legs outstretched and thinking fast, she dropped to the ground, lying down flat on her front as the Ashiddosupaidā came hurling above her, but since she had ducked, it had no target and went barrelling right into the second Ashiddosupaidā, which had been caught completely by surprise at Rena's action and was so caught up in its surprise that it failed to back away as its ally came hurtling towards it.

Rena then quickly got to her feet and turned round to see what had happened to the two Ashiddosupaidā, which were both struggling to separate themselves from each other, but once they managed to separate, instead of chasing after Rena, they both suddenly bore their fangs and charged at one another and grappled with one another as they each tried to sink their fangs into the other causing Rena to stare in shock and amusement as they attempted to kill one another.

"Oh of course, they're just spiders," she thought to herself as realisation dawned on her, "I'm not a wildlife expert, but spiders tended to attack one another, even if they're from the same species if they came into close contact with one another. Something about their hunting instincts being so powerful that they even resort to cannibalism should they get the opportunity."

It made sense now why they had both been keeping their distance. The Ashiddosupaidā were apparently smart enough to realise that they would end up fighting if they came too close to one another and so, kept at a distance, which made trying to kill her difficult since they could not close in on her. However, when one had attempted to lunge for her, she had done something unexpected, catching the second Ashiddosupaidā by surprise and in its surprise, failed to move backwards and upon coming into close proximity to its ally, both their minds seemed to regress to an instinctual level in which the hunting instincts of regular spiders seemed to have asserted control over them and caused them to fight one another.

"That's it!" she said, raising her arms in triumph as a plan started to formulate in her head, "Now I know how we can beat them!"

However, unfortunately for her, she had gotten so caught up in her own excitement that when she turned to leave, she noticed, just too late, a third Ashiddosupaidā in the process of lunging towards her with its body in a vertical position and its legs outstretched. Her eyes widened in shock just as it slammed into her and wrapped its legs round her body and brought its fangs down, intending to impale the orangette in the chest, but thankfully, Rena's arms were free since she had them in the air and using her hands, she grabbed both fangs and fought back. The impact of their collision had caused Rena to fall on her back and she frantically struggled against the enormous spider, knowing that even if she was lucky enough to kill this one, then the winner of the other two's fight would no doubt by waiting to pick up where the third had left off.

The Ashiddosupaidā had been caught by surprise by Rena's display of unusual strength. It had not expected her to get a hold of its fangs and it certainly had not expected her to actually succeed in holding them at bay. Such strength was unheard of in a human. Even if she did manage to grab a hold of its fangs, she should not have the strength to hold them off. It was mind-boggling just how this was possible and yet, here this young girl was able to hold its fangs and causing it to apply more force, but the more force it applied, the more strength Rena seemed to summon in order to keep its fangs in place and she violently jerked from side to side, which caused her attacker to worry since it could noticeably feel her movements and knew that should Rena manage to get it on its back, it was finished and continued applying more and more power in its attempt to impale the young girl, but Rena just countered by summoning more strength and her jerks became more frequent and violent till eventually with one massive jerk to her right, Rena managed to somehow roll the Ashiddosupaidā onto its back, causing it to release her as it started to thrash its legs violently in the air before it turned into back mist and dissipated.

"Yatta, Rena won; taake that you dark evil demon spider, Rena wins," she said as she jumped up and down in excitement, but unfortunately like before, she had gotten so caught up in her excitement over her triumph that she had completely forgotten about the other two that had been fighting before and the fight was now over with the winner lunging towards her, knowing that she would not have the strength to fight it off since she spent most of her strength fighting off its ally.

However, just as Rena realised her mistake and just as the Ashiddosupaidā was about to slam into her, Aegis suddenly landed in front of her and quickly delivered a punch to the Ashiddosupaidā that sent it flying backwards and caused it to land on its back.

"Daisuke-kun, arigatō," Rena said with a sigh of relief, "Arigatō and gomen, we tried to hide like you told us, but everywhere were went, those things seemed to be there and well, with everyone in a panic, we got separated in a crowd."

"Don't worry about it, Rena-san," Aegis said in a gentle and understanding voice, "These things happen. Now, I suggest that you concentrate on looking for the others."

"Hai," Rena said with a nod as a look of determination came over her as she ran down the alleyway and Aegis went off to deal with more Ashiddosupaidā.

* * *

Elsewhere in the town, Shion and Satoko, who managed to stick together were held up in Shion's old apartment before she moved back to Hinamizawa. The building itself was deserted aside from the two of them and since they both held themselves up, Satoko had wasted no time in rigging up booby-traps all over the place inside the building.

"Satoko, not that I don't have faith in your abilities to set traps and all, but those things aren't human and as such, I highly doubt that those traps will faze them," Shion pointed out as she thought about the situation, "Those demon spiders are not the Yamainu."

"I know that, nē-nē, but I've also taken the liberty of upgrading my traps in order to cope with that particular fact," Satoko responded with a rather smug looking grin on her face and Shion thought that Satoko was acting a bit too arrogantly.

However, just then an Ashiddosupaidā burst through the window of the apartment, causing Shion's eyes to widen in horror, but just then, something clicked and before Shion or the Ashiddosupaidā knew what was happening, a refrigerator shot out from the wall opposite the window and slammed into the huge spider, causing it to back up, but unfortunately for it, it backed up right off the edge of the apartment and fell right down to the parking lot below, landing on its back and then transformed into black mist and dissipated.

"How do you like that?" Satoko shouted down to where it had landed in a boastful tone, "My traps are the best. There's no way that you'll ever beat me, Oh-hohohohooho!"

"Just plain luck," Shion thought to herself, "And besides, that was a perfectly good waste of a refrigerator."

* * *

Back with Rika and Hanyū, they had both come to a clearing in one of the many alleyways and both gasped in shock and horror at seeing a good few number of acid puddles from the Ashiddosupaidā's acid globules mixed in with human remains. However, upon closer inspection, Rika noted that from the few remains that were left that they had all been police officers and her eyes widened even further when she noticed an ID badge with Yūkimoto's name in it.

"Yūkimoto," she said in shock, "This was Yūkimoto."

"So he became a victim of the Shadirā again, did he?" Hanyū said curiously, though her tone lacked any sort of sympathy due to the sort of person Yūkimoto was.

"It would seem so," Rika said with a sigh, shaking her head.

However, as she and Hanyū were about to move on, both noticed that there was more to this scene, including five dead bodies that were not puddles of acid and four of them had huge purple spikes sticking in them and the fifth looked as if he had died from a heart attack since he was clutching his chest and had a look of pure fright on his face. However, that was not all as in the centre of the clearing was an old burnt-out oil drum and surrounding it were what looked like empty sandbags.

"Looks like this must've been a murder scene before they attacked," Rika noted as she looked around in awe.

However, Hanyū's eyes narrowed as she laid eyes on the empty sandbags as she ignored her descendant's statement.

"I wonder just what those things are," Rika went on, unaware that Hanyū was no longer listening to her as she commented on the purple spikes, "They don't look as if they were caused by the same type of Shadirā that are attacking the town."

"Never mind that for the moment," Hanyū spoke up in an uncharacteristically serious tone, surprising Rika as she turned and saw her ancestor picking up one of the empty sandbags.

"Huh, Hanyū, just what are you…" Rika started to say, confused at Hanyū's unexpected change in character

"Shush, don't talk just yet!" Hanyū told Rika in what sounded like a scolding tone as she shook the sandbag and held out her hand and then suddenly, small traces of a white substance that resembled salt or sugar emptied out onto her hand and her eyes narrowed in uncharacteristic fury as she recognised the substance.

"What is it, Hanyū?" Rika asked curiously with a hint of fear in her voice as Hanyū's sudden change had come without warning.

"I think that we've located the source of the Shadirā attack," Hanyū said simply as she turned round and gave her descendant a stone-cold serious look on her face.

"Huh, Hanyū, I'm not following you," Rika said in confusion as she gave her ancestor a look of worry.

"Shadirā Samoningu Paudā," Hanyū stated gravely as she held out her hand to Rika, showing her the traces of white substance.

Rika just stared in confusion, unable to understand what Hanyū was getting at.

"Come on, Rika, think, what do you think this substance does?" Hanyū asked her descendent, expecting her to give her an answer, "The Japanese-accented English name should be a giveaway unless of course, you don't understand English at all."

"I'm surprised that you even know what the English language is, Hanyū, since you spent the past thousand or so years watching over Hinamizawa," Rika replied as she gave her ancestor an inquiring look.

"Now's not the time for that sort of thing," Hanyū said with a hint of annoyance in her tone that surprised Rika since never before had Hanyū ever gotten annoyed with her; not even once during the Eternal June despite her not being nice to her ancestor from time to time due to her frustration over the seemingly endless cycle she had ben living through.

"Wow, this must really be serious if Hanyū's in no mood to take my usual talk," she thought and then started to think about the Shadirā Samoningu Paudā that Hanyū mentioned and it did not take long for her to come to an answer as her eyes suddenly widened in horrific realisation.

"No way, are you saying that…?" she started to say, but then trailed off as she did not want to voice her fears.

"That someone summoned the Shadirā, here?" Hanyū finished for her and then nodded, causing Rika's heart to leap into her throat, "Yes, that's exactly what I mean."

"But, how…?" Rika said as she started to breathe heavily, until to believe that there was something capable of summoning the Shadirā to the human world.

"I don't know," Hanyū said with a frown as she shook her head, "However, this substance contains a pheromone that attracts Shadirā like moths to a flame and that pheromone is only released whenever the substance is burning and casting a flame to Shadirā Samoningu Paudā normally causes a massive fire, which releases the pheromone into the air. My guess is that whoever summoned them must have filled up the oil drum before setting it alight and those five bodies… well I believe that they may have interrupted them."

"But who would want to summon the Shadirā here and more importantly, why?" Rika asked, just trying to come to terms with what she had just learned.

"I'm afraid that I don't know," Hanyū replied with a sigh, "In the past, this was used by a group known as the Shadirā Sureiyāzu and it was normally used to lure Shadirā out to be killed. Like I said before, in ancient times, Shadirā attacks were far more common and they terrorised the local villages and towns. The Shadirā Sureiyāzu were originally formed of people who had lost loved ones to the Shadirā and naturally, they wanted revenge and through painstaking research, they created the Shadirā Samoningu Paudā and would burn it to lure the Shadirā out from Dāku Shadō Wārudo to kill them."

"You don't suppose that they're still around today, do you?" Rika asked curiously as she pondered the possibility that they were responsible for this.

"I dare say that they are still here, but I can't really be sure," Hanyū said with a sigh, "Even I haven't heard anything from them in centuries."

"So you don't think that they are responsible for this attack then, do you?" Rika went on as she voiced her concern.

"No, I don't think that they're behind this," Hanyū said, shaking her head, "I'll admit that in the past they did not particularly care for the lives of others and viewed any innocents caught in the crossfire as collateral damage, since they cared more about revenge than protecting the people, but if they were responsible for this, then their members would be crawling all over town, fighting them, but so far, the only one that's been fighting them aside from us is Daisuke."

"Makes sense," Rika said with a nod as she realised that Hanyū was right, but then another thought occurred to her, causing her eyes to widen, "Y-y-you d-don't suppose that the attack a week ago at the Watanagashi Festival was because of that stuff, do you?"

"Considering how rare Shadirā attacks are nowadays, that is a very distinct possibility," Hanyū said with a nod and Rika could not help but shudder at the thought.

However, the question remained, who had summoned the Shadirā and more importantly, why? Just what were they hoping to accomplish by summoning them? It just seemed illogical to Rika that anyone would want to summon a batch of demons. The Shadirā clearly had minds of their own and could not be controlled. Whoever was behind their attack, was he trying to control them? Rika honestly had no answers and neither did Hanyū and that was what she hated the most. Hanyū knew about the Shadirā. She had explained to her what she knew and yet, finding out that the attack occurred because someone had deliberately summoned them really did not sit too well with her.

* * *

Later, all of the members of the Gaming Club met up with one another. Shion and Satoko had eventually managed to get out of the apartment building, though thanks to Satoko's many traps, the building had ended up being raised to the ground, killing a good few Ashiddosupaidā. Satoko's traps proved to be very effective as she had managed to make use of mundane utilities and substances and create makeshift bombs. Heck, she had managed to lure one into the elevator and then cut the cable, causing it to fall to the bottom of the shaft and onto a canister of gasoline and with the design of the trap, the impact had created a spark that caused the canister to explode, killing the Ashiddosupaidā in the elevator. One other trap included luring another one into a gas-filled room and then creating a spark, vaporising the unsuspecting Ashiddosupaidā. However, Satoko had noted that the Ashiddosupaidā tended to keep their distance from one another and so, she set up a few traps to force a few of them into close proximity to one another and was shocked and surprised to see that they all turned on one another and tried to kill each other, though Shion had explained that spiders had hunting instincts that were so powerful and irresistible that they would attack even other spiders of their own species if they remained in close proximity to one another for a period of time. Heck, even as babies that first hatch, they had about an hour to get away from their brothers and sisters before their instincts asserted themselves if which if they were still together, then they would start attacking one another.

"Man, there seems to be no end in sight to those things," Mion said in frustration.

"Yeah, no matter how many we take down, more seem to pop up in their place," Keiichi growled in annoyance, "I tell you, the whole place is crawling with these spiders."

"And don't forget what Dai-chan said, once all of those things are gone, their commander will show itself," Shion said as she recalled what Daisuke had said five days ago, "I believe that they're called Shadevā."

"Yeah, I also remember that," Rena said with a nod, "We'll let Daisuke-kun handle that thing."

"So then, any ideas on how to defeat them?" Mion asked curiously.

"Well, Mī-chan, when Rena was being chased by one, she became trapped between two of them," Rena spoke up, referring to herself in the third person, "However, it was then Rena noticed that they seemed to be keeping their distance from one another. As the one behind Rena moved towards her, the one in front of her moved backwards and then, eventually one lunged for Rena, but she ducked and it went hurling into the other one and then they both started fighting one another."

"Huh, that's strange, why would they attack one another?" Mion asked in confusion; not that she was complaining or anything, but she did find it strange.

"That's right," Satoko said as she decided to tell the others about her experience, "When I set up some of my traps, some of them ended up together, but then they all started to kill one another."

"Hai, that's correct," Shion said with a nod, "I guess they're more like spiders in more than just appearance."

"Yes, that's right," a new voice came, causing the other to turn and stare as Aegis landed not far from them. However, upon noticing the light in the centre of his belt buckle, everyone noticed that it was yellow-turning-orange instead of bright green.

"Oh this," he said when he noticed what the others were staring at, "This is a light that functions like a health metre in a video game that gradually changes colour as I receive damage. The more damage I receive, the more the colour changes."

"So what are the colours?" Rika asked curiously as she raised a curious eyebrow.

"Well, green means that I'm okay," Aegis started to explain as the others listened in curiously, "Yellow means that I've suffered some damage, but can still fight. Orange means that I can still fight, but it advises me to retreat and red means that continuing the fight is no longer an option and that I must retreat or risk death and when it starts flashing, it means that the damage I've received is critical and as I suffer damage, the flashing will increase in frequency and when it's flickering violently, it means I'm just one hit away from death and should the light go out completely while I'm still in my armour, it means that I'm dead."

"Wow, so you have your own health metre, huh?" Keiichi asked curiously in awe.

"Uh huh, now, I think that the Ashiddosupaidā invasion has gone on long enough," Aegis said as he looked over the town and saw that there were still loads of Ashiddosupaidā despite having already killed quite a few of their number, "Any ideas?"

"Well, if they attack each other while in close proximity to one another, the best way to defeat them is to get them all together," Mion summarised as she analysed the situation and remembered what Rena and Satoko had said.

"Yeah, but there's a problem there, Mion-san," Aegis said as he briefly paused to look towards the remaining Ashiddosupaidā, "They're not stupid. They are aware of this, which is why they maintain their distance from one another. Even Shadorujā-level Shadirā aren't stupid. They're not mindless drones or anything like it. They can come up with very convoluted and complex plans when they have to. As Rena-san stated, when they trap someone, it's only one that goes after the target while the rest keep their distance. They are aware that when in close proximity to one another that they can't control themselves. That's why they stay away from one another."

"So, somehow, we're going to have to trick them into coming close to each other so they can attack on another," Shion said as she looked at the remaining Ashiddosupaidā with a look of doubt materialising on her face, "I don't know you guys, that sounds tough, especially considering that there's still a lot of them across Okinomiya."

"There must be something we can do," Keiichi said as he sighed in frustration.

"And I think that I have the answer," Mion said with a grin, causing everyone to turn and look at her questioningly, "Of course, it'll require Satoko's trap expertise."

"Hai, I'll do whatever you want me to, Mion-san," Satoko said as she stood at attention.

"Good girl," Mion said with a rather arrogant looking grin on her face and then started to explain her plan.

* * *

As it turned out, Mion's plan was quite simple. She had led the others to an abandoned warehouse and had Satoko transform it into a death trap with various objects and the idea was to lure the Ashiddosupaidā to the warehouse and it was hoped that as they tried to dodge Satoko's traps, they would end up getting into close proximity to one another and then start killing one another and Aegis acted as bait. With this plan in place, it did not take long for the Ashiddosupaidā to walk into the trap, though Aegis did kill a few of them with his Shadirā Bagu Supurē to throw off suspicion that he was leading them into a trap and once he led a few of them to the warehouse, Satoko's traps did their job as the Ashiddosupaidā all tried to dodge, but ended up trying to kill one another and some even managed to fall victim to some of Satoko's traps, causing they to transform into black mist and dissipate. However, not all Ashiddosupaidā fell for this trap as they were soon convinced that something was amiss, but Aegis managed to hunt them down and kill them and pretty soon, the Ashiddosupaidā were no longer in the town.

"So then, I guess now that they've been dealt with, their Shadevā commander will show up, right?" Rika said and Daisuke nodded.

"Hai, defeating the Shadorujā always draws out the Shadevā behind them," Aegis replied with a nod.

No sooner had he spoken that the Earth started to shake and Aegis and the Gaming Club all scattered as what could only be described as a giant dark grey tarantula made of rock with a single glowing blood-red eye at the front of its head emerged from the ground underneath them. The tarantula looked around for a while and then focused its gaze on Aegis and roared at him with a ratther loud, high-pitched and ear-peircing screech, opening its mouth with had two rows of jagged teeth at the top and bottom. The tarantula was also just as big as Aegis was and before Aegis could study the tarantula further, there was even more shaking of the Earth and Aegis suddenly jumped backwards as a second tarantula, identical to the first emerged from the ground.

"Another one?" Keiichi said in confusion, "There's two of them?"

"Of course," Aegis said as realisation dawned on him as the knowledge of this Shadevā type flooded his mind, "Kaikuropusu; the Shadevā in charge of the Ashiddosupaidā and unlike most Shadevā, they tend to work in pairs."

"Work in pairs?" Mion said as she stared at the two rock tarantulas, the Kaikuropusu in disbelief, "Great, and one's bad enough."

The two Kaikuropusu continued to look around in disbelief, unable to believe that their underlings had been defeated. If they could form facial expressions, they would clearly be expressions of disbelief and shock. Like the Papettiā before them, they just could not comprehend how their underlings had lost to weak and pathetic humans. Just how was it that their underlings managed to be bested by those… those wastrels? They were clearly infuriated at the fact that despite their superiority over the humans, those humans had somehow managed to defeat their underlings and that infuriated them the most and seeing Aegis and the Gaming Club, they decided that they must have been responsible. One of the Kaikuropusu turned its attention towards the Gaming Club members, intending to start with them, but the other moved in its way and started making a string of strange high-pitched screeching sounds that were both incoherent and inaudible as it motioned its head towards Aegis. The first Kaikuropusu looked unsure for a moment, but after a more screeches from its partner, it relented and also turned its attention towards Aegis and from inside his mask, Aegis sighed in relief since the second Kaikuropusu had obviously talked its partner into belaying attacking the Gaming Club so they would deal with him first. However, he knew that once he was out of the way, the Gaming Club would be next.

"Alright, you pair of rock tarantulas, come and get me," Aegis boasted tauntingly as both Kaikuropusu screeched at him and then one walked out in front of the other and the one at the back then took a massive leap into the air while the first one spat out rocks from its mouth, causing Aegis to jump backwards as the second one landed in his former position, obviously intending on crushing him, but before he had a chance to think, the one that had just landed spat out rocks while the one that had spat out rocks before leapt into the air and came down towards him as he jumped backwards to avoid getting crushed.

Aegis knew that this was how the Kaikuropusu operated. They worked as a team. One would spit out rocks at the target while the other would leap into the air and then come down on the target, attempting to crush it and once it was in front of its partner, they would swap roles with the one that had jumped being the one to spit out rocks and the one that had been spitting out rocks be the one who jumped. To Aegis, it was a very effective strategy since with one spitting rocks from the front, he could not dodge the one coming down on him by moving forwards and being surrounded by buildings on either side, left him very little room to move to the sides since the rocks covered a vast area and he risked getting hit and so, with that in mind, he found himself being pushed back as he tried to avoid both, getting crushed and the rocks being spat at him at the same time and some of the rocks did hit his armour on the shoulders as he moved to dodge and the light in the centre of his buckle became more orange in colour and was starting to turn red.

"This isn't good," Aegis thought to himself, "I can't keep this up forever."

However, he knew that that was the point of the Kaikuropusu's strategy. Their idea of dealing with him was to wear him down till he was too tired to fight back and then they would move in for the kill. He had to admit that they both worked well as a team as they continued their strategy. If he decided to risk an attack, there was a good chance of it ending badly for him since he would most likely get caught by the rocks and then they would move in while he was disorientated. On the other hand, if he continued to back away, he would eventually tire and then he would be wide open for them, so in their minds, they had already won and it was only a question of how long it would take for them to kill him. As one came down and started spitting rocks, the other leapt into the air as Aegis jumped backwards and veered to the side, but the rocks shot out in all direction and so Aegis found himself zipping and weaving as well as he found his reflexes being tested.

"Gee, you'd think they'd have a limit to how much of those rocks they can spit out," he thought to himself as he analysed their pattern to see if there was an opening he could exploit.

Unfortunately, he could not find one as one of the Kaikuropusu landed right in front of him and before he could react, it spat out its load of rocks and send Aegis flying back, causing the light on his belt buckle to become more red, though it did not start to flash. In any case, he quickly rolled backwards, got to his feet and jumped backwards as the second Kaikuropusu came down on him.

"Damn it, I got careless," he cursed as he noted the colour of his belt, "And unfortunately, I'm going to have to retreat, but unfortunately, that's not an option either."

He then remembered something about the Kaikuropusu. Sure, they worked as a team, but at the end of the day, they were just spiders just like the Ashiddosupaidā. Because they were made up of rocks, they were immune to his Shadirā Bagu Supurē and they lacked the overpowering instincts of the Ashiddosupaidā, but he knew that it was possible to turn them against one another. If he could somehow trick one into attacking the other, then they would both turn on one another and with only one Kaikuropusu to deal with, it would be easy. In fact, a single Kaikuropusu was easier than a Papettiā. The only thing that made the Kaikuropusu seem more formidable was the fact that they were always seen in teams of two and worked as a team. However, a Kaikuropusu had more endurance than a Papettiā, but that should not be a problem, Aegis figured. He would let the two Kaikuropusu duke it out and once one had been killed, he would swoop in and deal with the winner, which, he knew would probably have been weakened due to its fight with its partner.

However, the question was, just how could he pull that off? He knew that he probably would not be able to withstand another attack head-on and so, he had to tread cautiously since his belt was telling him to retreat, but he knew that due to the situation that retreat was impossible and so, he just had to continue the fight. However, looking up as one of the Kaikuropusu leapt into the air, his eyes widened as he noticed that none of the rocks fired from its partner were aimed into the air and that was when he saw his opening. The one coming down on him was defenceless and if he could just somehow stop it in mid-air and get it to fall on top of its partner, then its partner would most likely interpret that as an attack and then they would both fight one another.

"Right, that's it, now all I have to do is wait for the right moment," he thought and as soon as the Kaikuropusu at the back leapt into the air, Aegis quickly performed a Rider Jump, combining it with a Rider Uppercut Punch, catching the Kaikuropusu by surprise as Aegis had bent his knees before moving upright again and stood on his tiptoes, only to be propelled into the air with his fist raised high.

"RIDER UPPERCUT PUNCH JUMP!" he shouted in declaration as his fist came into contact with the second Kaikuropusu's underbelly and the momentum of Aegis's rise into the air flipped it onto its back, causing it to come crashing down on top of its partner.

Caught by surprise, the Kaikuropusu on the ground had no time to move backwards to avoid its falling partner and their collision was inevitable, but the one of its back was able to roll back onto its front. However, the first Kaikuropusu screeched angrily at its partner and its partner screeched back and from what Aegis could see, they were clearly having an argument. However, eventually one Kaikuropusu suddenly lashed out at the other by spitting out rocks at its partner and its partner wasted no time in retaliating by doing the same and pretty soon, both had turned on one another like Aegis had planned and Aegis just watched from atop a roof and the two Kaikuropusu continue to spit out rocks at one another, their previous teamwork and their desire to get revenge on Aegis and the Gaming Club for defeating their underlings completely forgotten about as they now concentrated on trying to eliminate one another and eventually after what seemed like an eternity, the Kaikuropusu on the left suddenly started to break apart before transforming into black mist and dissipating.

Almost immediately afterwards, before the surviving Kaikuropusu could react, Aegis performed another Rider Jump and the summersaulting over the area above where the Kaikuropusu was, brought up his left leg, bending his knee so that only his right leg was pointed downwards and then suddenly started to drop downwards, gathering speed as he descended.

"RIDER DIVING STOMP!" he shouted as the Kaikuropusu only had enough time to look up before Aegis came crashing down, impacting his foot right in the centre of its back and the impact was so great that not only did Aegis form a crater beneath the road, but the Kaikuropusu literally blew apart as pieces of rock went flying in all directions.

However, they pieces of rock quickly transformed into black mist and dissipated before they could make contact with anything.

"Yeah, game, set and match!" Aegis declared from the centre of the crater as he mimicked the gesture he had performed after defeating the Papettiā a week previously and then he reached for the outlining of his belt buckle and pushed in the centre while rotating the outlining anti-clockwise, "Return to the past, now!"

Once he said that, everything suddenly became a sea of white.

* * *

**Unknown location, unknown Prefecture, Japan – Friday 22****nd**** June 1984 (previous day after Return to the Past)**

In the basement of Kagemaru's facility, Reigō was going over the footage that Aegis's Rotor Belt had sent back to his mainframe with a huge smile on his face as he witnessed Aegis dealing with the Ashiddosupaidā. He mostly utilised his Shadirā Bagu Supurē, but quite a few time, some Ashiddosupaidā had managed to catch him by surprise and manage to hit him, but Reigō was not concerned about that. The damage that the Shadorujā could cause him was minimal and not a problem. Aegis had even managed to get hit by a couple of acid globules, but his armour proved to be highly resistant to acidic substances and Reigō watched as the acid evaporated off Aegis's armour as if it was just water.

"Most impressive, Shishigō," he mused to himself with his usual cruel and sadistic smile, "I have to say that you found that a bit more challenging than the Marionetto."

Screeds of red text suddenly started to appear over the image as it continued to play out.

However as the image changed to the other members of th Gaming Club and he saw that they had helped in dealing with the Ashiddosupaidā in their own unique ways, he raised his eyebrows, looking rather intrigued, especially after witnessing Rena and how she managed to successfully overpower one Ashiddosupaidā, which should not really be possible for even the strongest human and yet, this young girl had managed to pull it off; albeit with a bit of a struggle, but still, she had managed to succeed.

"Interesting development," he went on musing to himself as he became rather curious and massaged his chin with his fingers in a curious gesture, "I definitely wasn't expecting that and to think, that's the girl that Shishigō spends the most time with. I wonder… Something like that should not be possible for an ordinary human and yet, she somehow goes and pulls off the impossible. I have to admit that I am indeed impressed. I never expected that this little venture with Shishigō would lead me to a treasure trove of exciting new possibilities."

That much, he had to admit was true. In the beginning when he had first discovered where Shishigō ended up after almost two years of being on the run, he had planned to observe him for a while, having his clone based in Hinamizawa, Jūgogō summon Shadirā from time to time to test his abilities and see how depleted his skills had become and also get his skills back up to where they had been before he ordered Jūgogō to retrieve him, having him kill his friends, aside from Rika and Hanyū since he had plans for them and burning the village to the ground just for kicks since he absolutely detested Hinamizawa with a passion. However, upon seeing the data also from the members of the Gaming Club and seeing how they had managed to hold their own against the Shadorujā-level Shadirā, he had to admit that they had impressed them and he remembered how he had seen Rena and Mion hold their own against the Marionetto a week earlier and how they, along with Sonozaki Akane had proceeded to defeat the Papettiā's Samurai Shōgun Papetto minions.

"Hai, I dare say that they would make fine Kaizō Ningen," Reigō mused to himself as his grin widened as a new plan started to formulate in his head, "Hai, sure, why not? After all, I can use them to keep Shishigō in line should he prove to become rebellious again."

The image on the screen then showed Rika and Hanyū in the clearing where Jūgogō had first summoned the Ashiddosupaidā and his grin widened as he saw that Hanyū had managed to connect the dots and realise that the Ashiddosupaidā had been summoned, but that did not matter to him in the slightest. Since Shishigō had reset the timeline, everything had been erased and everyone who had died had been revived, so there was no crime to answer for any longer. Those five gang members were alive again with no memories of what had happened and since Jūgogō was immune to the Return to the Past System, there would be no repeat performance.

However, what intrigued him most was that he learned that the Gaming Club were somehow immune to the Return to the Past System despite the fact that they did not meet any of the circumstances that needed to be met to render one immune to it… at least for most of them. He did know that Rika and Hanyū would both have been immune anyway due to their repeated attempts at averting Rika's death in the June of the previous year.

"Ah yes, I am very much aware of that," he went on musing to himself, "I must really thank you for finally being able to avert Rika-chan's death at Takano's hands for me, Hainiryūn Ieasomūru Jieda. After all, along with Shishigō, you and Rika-chan are both my property and I can't have anyone killing any of you, now can I."

He then walked away from the screen and opened a cupboard on the opposite end of the room and rummaging through its contents, pulled out a piece of paper that had screeds of text written on it. Reading it over, he nodded to himself. It was basically a contract and the signature on the contract was one; Furude Hikari, Rika's mother.

"You may be dead, Hikari-chan, but I must commend you for leaving behind such a beautiful little girl to take your place as my plaything and along with the real Oyashiro-sama, herself..." as his expression morphed into a psychotic predatorily smile, but then frowned when he remembered Rika's physical age, "Of course, I'll have to wait a few years for them to grow up in order to get intimate with them, but that's a price worth paying."

He then threw his head back and burst into loudly insane psychotic laughter that echoed throughout the room and had anyone been present, they would have been trembling in pure terror as their blood would have run cold and froze up as terror would undoubtedly grip the very cores of their souls.

* * *

**Hinamizawa, XX Prefecture, Japan – Saturday 23****rd**** June 1984 (again and one day later)**

It was a warm clear night in Hinamizawa and the stars twinkled up in the sky like nobody's business. Daisuke was currently Aegis as he had decided to go out and look for more Shadirā. Of course, he knew that he was probably paranoid since he doubted that they would mount another attack so soon after their last attack had been beaten. However, it would not hurt to be careful since he knew that they would inevitably attack again. However, the question going through his mind was why? Why had they attacked? He did remember enough to know that Shadirā attacks were exceedingly rare nowadays. To have two in the space of a week was nothing short of phenomenal. In ancient times, one would have expected about one or two attacks each day, but ever since mankind started to embrace science and technology and lose faith in magic and the supernatural, the Shadirā, for reasons unknown had seemed to lose interest in the human world as their attacks became more and more rare as time went on. It was mind-boggling just how in this day and age that the Shadirā could launch two attacks in the space of a week.

"Perhaps they've become more interested in the human world again," he thought to himself as tried to come up with an explicable theory.

However, for some reason, he doubted it. From what he knew, the Shadirā never seemed to have bothered the people of Hinamizawa or Okinomiya in the past. In fact, none of the members of the Gaming Club aside from Hanyū, from what he could tell, had ever heard of them before, so just what could have attracted them to them. However, just then a thought of pure dread entered his mind and his eyes widened in horrifying realisation. He knew about the Shadirā and after a month of being in Hinamizawa, the Shadirā had attacked and he conveniently regained his knowledge of them.

"What if… what if it's me they're after?" he thought to himself as he shuddered.

That did make sense… at least to him it did. He knew what the Shadirā were; they attack and his knowledge about them is restored and the fact that they launched a second attack in the area where he just happened to be also registered with him. What if it was because of him that they attacked? Though he could not think of any reason why the Shadirā would be particularly interested in him. Sure, he had the powers to deal with them, but he was just one person and he knew that those above the level of Shadevā and quite a few Shadevā themselves were stronger than he was and he knew that if the Shadorujā were all to drop what they were doing and gang up on him all at once, then he would be finished. The only reason that he had managed to avoid that scenario with the Marionetto and the Ashiddosupaidā was because; with the Marionetto, the villagers had managed to fight back and keep them occupied and with the Ashiddosupaidā, they had been scattered all over Okinomiya; not to mention that his friends had successfully managed to handle a few of them. With that in mind, he could not think of any reason why they would single him out.

Of course, he did have amnesia, maybe there was a reason why they had singled him out and he just could not remember that reason. That seemed plausible, though the more he thought about it and tried to unlock what that possible reason was, more he only succeeded in given himself a massive headache and the more he tried, the worse the headache became.

"Daisuke?" a familiar voice, bringing Aegis out of his thoughts and back to reality and he turned to see Rika and Hanyū both standing with serious looks on their faces and the level of seriousness in their eyes would not look so out of place if he had been facing two a pair of adults.

"Rika-chan, Hanyū-chan, what are you two doing out here?" he asked, curious as to why they were outside so late at night.

"Funny, we were about to ask you the same question," Rika said in her mature adult-like voice that lacked the childish cuteness that he was used to and he knew that she meant business and looking at Hanyū, he could tell that she was in no mood for pleasantries either and looked ready to attack on a moment's notice, "Anyway, though, despite the fact that we weren't expecting to find you out here, it's a good thing that we did since I really think that we need to talk."

* * *

**Author's Notes** – Finally, another chapter done and in truth, it felt like it took me forever due to unforeseen circumstances relating to real life. If all had gone as I had originally intended, then I probably would've gotten this out on Thursday, Friday at the latest, but as things stood, it was not meant to be. I had been aiming to get this chapter up yesterday, but it took longer than expected. Anyway, I will admit that there's a bit of real-life research that I did on the Japanese Police present and just so you know, I have no intentions of making an issue out of that. It was just something I mentioned that tied in with Yūkimoto's character. Yūkimoto himself is the only one who's like that I'll be concentrating on. The rest of the police officers in this fic are more benevolent. Yūkimoto's the only bad seed I'll be concentrating on (as well as his cousin and brother later on).


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